Sergio Perez pulled off a surprise by making just one pit stop during the Australian Grand Prix when several other drivers needed three.
But he lost a maiden haul of six points for seventh place when both Saubers were disqualified for a technical infringement.
| Kamui Kobayashi | Sergio Perez | |
| Qualifying position | 9 | 13 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’25.405 (-0.703) | 1’26.108 |
| Race position | DQ | DQ |
| Laps | 58/58 | 58/58 |
| Pit stops | 2 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | 105.896 | 97.118 | 95.483 | 95.648 | 95.633 | 95.302 | 96.681 | 94.52 | 94.425 | 94.491 | 94.586 | 94.567 | 94.847 | 94.342 | 95.916 | 114.819 | 100.585 | 92.875 | 93.091 | 93.333 | 94.651 | 93.85 | 94.158 | 92.332 | 93.492 | 92.662 | 92.666 | 92.373 | 92.164 | 92.08 | 92.423 | 112.12 | 99.549 | 91.739 | 91.269 | 91.247 | 91.081 | 91.339 | 91.194 | 90.946 | 91.027 | 91.773 | 91.141 | 90.818 | 90.969 | 90.7 | 90.735 | 90.617 | 90.62 | 90.696 | 90.384 | 91.132 | 91.237 | 91.687 | 90.778 | 92.265 | 91.229 | 91.83 |
| Sergio Perez | 112.663 | 97.576 | 96.216 | 95.617 | 95.999 | 96.169 | 95.294 | 95.375 | 98.168 | 96.506 | 94.646 | 94.746 | 94.905 | 96.433 | 94.867 | 94.778 | 94.79 | 94.889 | 94.623 | 94.685 | 95.145 | 95.217 | 115.111 | 102.17 | 92.147 | 91.309 | 91.307 | 91.05 | 90.671 | 91.243 | 91.517 | 91.74 | 91.306 | 92.775 | 91.896 | 92.569 | 90.649 | 90.741 | 89.962 | 90.526 | 90.545 | 90.721 | 90.513 | 90.137 | 90.319 | 90.239 | 90.633 | 91.997 | 90.614 | 90.477 | 91.543 | 90.802 | 90.806 | 91.401 | 91.536 | 91.539 | 91.709 | 92.577 |
Kamui Kobayashi
Kobayashi got his Sauber into Q3 and although he had no new soft tyres left he decided to stick with them rather to start on hards.
Although he moved ahead of Fernando Alonso at the start he couldn’t keep the Ferrari behind.
He fell victim to a surprise attack from Rubens Barrichello later on and lost another place, but moved up again after Barrichello took out Nico Rosberg.
He pitted twice, falling behind his team mate the last time and finishing eighth on the road.
Sergio Perez
Perez was one of only two drivers to start the race on hard tyres. He struggled for pace to begin with and was passed by Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado.
He stayed out until lap 22 on his original set of tyres, rising to seventh place, before switching to softs. He made those tyres last the remaining 35 laps.
Although his lap times began to slip towards the end he was under little pressure from team mate Kobayashi behind him.
Sauber claim their rear wing failed the post-race check because of a manufacturing error and insist they did not gain performance from it.
2011 Australian Grand Prix
- Hamilton and Button expect more from McLaren
- Sauber will not appeal Australia disqualification
- 2011 Australian Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
- Who was the best driver of the Australian Grand Prix weekend?
- No home advantage for Webber at Red Bull
- Relief at McLaren after last-minute changes pay off
- Ferrari look for answers on missing pace
- Collisions spoil Mercedes’ start to the season
- Petrov fires Renault with fine drive to first podium
- Unreliability and driver errors hold Williams back
Browse all 2011 Australian Grand Prix articles
Image ?é?® Sauber F1 Team
HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
28th March 2011, 16:18
Excellent dubut drive from Perez ruined by a silly factory error.
Still, great promise for the season; Kobayashi too.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th March 2011, 16:50
Shows how important a working quality control system is, eh.
Great debut by Checo Perez. Kamui did a good job not to get into the incidents that hit him at the start of last year and had a very nice drive this weekend. Just a shame we did not see him doing much exiting overtaking.
Enigma (@enigma)
28th March 2011, 20:08
Keith, Perez had the softer tyres on for 35 laps (22+35=58), so a typo there.
RIISE (@riise)
28th March 2011, 16:21
I think Perez is better than Kobayashi, clearly easier on his tyres and maintains a brilliant pace. He actually seems like he could jump into a top car and win.
Ridiculous from Sauber though ruining what was a perfect debut.
TFLB
28th March 2011, 16:40
I think you’re over-reacting by saying that Perez is already better than Kobayashi. It’s still too early to tell, although I do think that they will be very evenly-matched this year.
Steph (@)
28th March 2011, 16:50
I agree that it is too early to tell but I also feel that Perez could well be better than Kobayashi but although I like watching Kamui I’ve never rated him as much as a lot of people seem to. It’s a shame Sauber got DSQd too but I don’t think Perez will be that fussed as he’ll still count that as beating his team mate on his first race.
One of the Sauber’s helped give me one of my favourite moments of the race but for the wrong reason as it was Rubens pulling off a cracking overtake on Kobayashi. Unfortunately, a little while later, Rubens then completely lost his head and ruined Nico’s race. Perfect exammple of how to go from hero to zero.
RIISE (@riise)
28th March 2011, 18:15
I know my comment may have seemed slightly premature but he just seems the better driver. I guess we will see but I think he will consistently out race Kamui, who might I add like Steph don’t rate as much some others do.
infy (@infy)
28th March 2011, 16:37
They claim it didn’t give them an advantage. I claim it did. So who’s telling the truth?
phildick (@phildick)
28th March 2011, 17:10
It should be visible in their performance and tyre management in the next race I think.
Mark Hitchcock (@mark-hitchcock)
28th March 2011, 17:56
Well I’d be inclined to believe the people who can see the data and know more about their own car than you probably do…
RIISE (@riise)
28th March 2011, 18:16
It’s a tough one for the FIA. Clearly the rules and they have to assess how much of an advantage they possibly gained. I think the appeal may be successful if Sauber can put forward a good case.
RIISE (@riise)
28th March 2011, 18:17
*Clearly the rules were broken
Henry
29th March 2011, 13:54
Well I dont know how much it matters – I mean, whether it helped or not, if the rules were broken then they were broken, that is that. Plently of teams bring updates to cars which dont always make the car go any faster; just because they are not successful does not make it any less illegal. I dont know how much of an infringement it was, or how much that matters. I would love to see sauber get the points back but I fear it would lead to a precedent that could later be exploited, so they wont.
Speed-Wiz
28th March 2011, 17:04
I think Perez was the most impressive driver of the race.
Lew Numba 1 (@lew-numba-1)
28th March 2011, 17:52
For sure. It must not have been a very exciting drive to watch, but he was the only one to make the tires last so long and he held a very good position with experienced drivers ahead of him and behind him.
Of course I think Lewis is always the best, and he WAS impressive yesterday … but I still gotta hand it to Perez. Very impressive.
DaveF1 (@davef1)
28th March 2011, 17:23
Why don’t tthe FIA just strip Sauber of their constructors points and allow Sergio and Kamui to keep the points for the drivers championship? It would be a lot fairer if the drivers were not aware of the infringements.
But still lets hope Sauber score some more good points later in the season.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th March 2011, 17:48
Well that assumes that no advantage was gained, which is not necessarily the case.
As I said before, this is a rear wing infringement and we’re talking about the cars that were fastest through the speed trap in qualifying. Granted, not by very much, but nor had they broken the rules by very much either, it seems. That doesn’t mean they or their drivers should not be punished.
Eggry (@eggry)
28th March 2011, 18:11
Exellent young drivers, crucial failure of engineers. It’s really shame that their mistake(or cheat) spoil an young driver’s fantastic debut. Anyway, Mr.Sauber makes me sure he has brilliant eyes for talented driver once again. Just he needs more competitive car and money to keep them.
Ollie (@olz21)
28th March 2011, 18:27
Looking at what Perz did with his strategy, I can see a lot more teams starting on the hard tyre in the next few races. Trying to go as far as they can into the race on the hards in the hope that by that stage the track will be nicely rubbered in and the softs may go to the end of the race.
I know this will not be possible on some tracks but I think it will be increasingly possible as the season progresses and the teams learn more about the tyres.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
28th March 2011, 21:29
Especially for a driver starting right outside the top ten. Top ten qualifiers will marginalize their tires by pushing in q2 and again in q3. Someone placing 11th or 12th in qualifying might even be able to make that strategy work to get on to the podium if they’re lucky.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
28th March 2011, 21:33
In the graph Kobayashi has been assigned the “fake leg” color, otherwise known as “prosthesis peach.”
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
29th March 2011, 3:46
Really sad for this team. A rule broken is a a crime in F1 & they have to live with it. Both the drivers raced well. Now they need to concentrate for Malaysia.