Gutierrez expects strong race after Q3 breakthrough

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

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Esteban Gutierrez believes he can have a strong race in tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix after reaching Q3 for the first time in his F1 career.

Gutierrez says getting a better result in qualifying was the main thing he needed to do to improve his performances.

“Our pace is great in the races,” said Gutierrez. “We were able to fight for position, we were just missing starting in a better position.”

“And now starting P10 it will a huge difference for us and we will try to maximise every part of it.”

Gutierrez said the key to his qualifying result was having “a more aggressive strategy” and conducting exercises during practice to get used to extracting the most from the tyres.

“These obviously made me make some mistakes in certain optimal laps in practice,” he said, “but it was the only way to feel that edge and knowing we’d be putting some pressure on that side to be there and to extract the maximum of the tyres.”

“It’s a great feeling to know we have found a solution to that. I have to take this feeling, this memory of this lap which was amazing to keep improving in the future.”

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

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Image © Sauber

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Gutierrez expects strong race after Q3 breakthrough”

  1. Michael Brown (@)
    21st September 2013, 16:10

    Here’s hoping Sauber can get both cars in the points tomorrow.

    1. Do they give the teams money for finishing in the points? or it’s the end of the year in prize money? That ‘ll come good for them

      1. End of the year. Either way, points mean prizes :-)

      2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        21st September 2013, 16:49

        Not for points, but for their final place in the WCC. Even with no points, as you can remember the Catherham vs Marussia battle in Brazil last year

  2. Often this year I saw Gutierrez fighting around 11th-12 place, so this big step forward can bring positive results. He also saved tyres in Q3, and considering how struggling Williams and Force India were I think Sauber can fight with McLaren.

  3. First rookie to score a point? I’ve already placed my bet :)

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      21st September 2013, 18:07

      I think Gutierrez has a better chance of scoring points tomorrow than Bottas did back in Canada.

      1. Well, that’s pretty obvious, since he did that qualifying time in dry track and tomorrow is most likely going to be dry. While as Bottas did his qualy in wet and race was done in dry, so we all know he’d be dropping like a stone during race.

  4. Huh…. hardly any comments on Gutierrez good performance. Although, a plethora of negative comments always seems to bombard Gutierrez every race weekend. He is a good racer and will soon surprise. Guess no negative comments is no comments to some.

    1. I agree, maybe the news did not attract that much atention for this driver, he can capitalize on this opportunity, really hope he does, it can bring another name to the list of potential drivers than can score in the top ten, love this outfit, hope they do surprise all of us tomorrow.

    2. One performance doesn’t improve your credibility tremendously. In 2010, Petrov managed to outqualify Kubica on merit in Hungary and went on to finish 5th which is indeed commendable, and later in Abu Dhabi he held up Alonso and Webber for over 30 laps but that doesn’t change the fact that overall his performance in 2010 was pretty dreadful. Likewise for Gutierrez, he’ll need to do this on a consistent basis to impress like Hulkenberg.

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