Kamui Kobayashi: Post rain car pace was not enough to defend position in Canadian GP – Formula 1
Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi has said that his car’s pace after the heavy rain was not good enough to defend his position in the 2011 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
He also mentioned that he is really disappointed with his seventh place finish in the Montreal race after taking a strong start.
Kobayashi started the race from the 13th place on the grid. He was expecting to be closer to the top-runners of ongoing season in the Canadian race weekend. However, following the long red flag due to heavy rain after the first 25 laps of the
race, he could not retain his place on the Pirelli wet tyres.
The team driver said, “Originally I qualified 13th so then it is not bad to finish seventh, but on the other hand I started second after the long red flag and looking from there the result is disappointing. We have scored points and in the end this is most
important.”
The Japanese seemed to be struggling for a good finish after the second start of the race. He had a close fight with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov until the end of the Canadian race. He lost his place to McLaren’s Jenson Button, when
he was trying to beat him in the closing laps and due to that, he remained 33.2 seconds off the pace of Button.
Despite all of this, the Sauber driver was somewhat happy, as he scored some points for the team during the Canadian Grand Prix.
Apart from that, his teammate Pedro de la Rosa finished on the 12th spot.
De la Rosa added, “Just before the restart Jenson Button and I touched and I had to pit because of a damaged front wing. This ruined my race, I lost many positions, and I even lost a few more later when I got stuck in first gear. I tried to recover from
this as well as possible, but points were then out of reach.”
After scoring points in the Canadian Grand Prix, the team is hoping for a more productive run in the remainder of 2011 Formula 1 season.
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