Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi says fastest lap time in Barcelona not real result – Formula 1 news
Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi has said that the fastest lap time set in the second Formula 1 pre-season test at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona is not a real result and expressed that he is not at all carried away by the result of test driving.
Sauber team completely qualified simulation before the lunch break while Kobayashi set the fastest time of 1 minute and 22.312 seconds on Pirelli’s soft compound during the last hour of testing in the morning session. Kobayashi was followed by Williams’
driver Pastor Maldonado and Force India’s driver Paul di Resta.
However, Kobayashi said that it was not the real result and he further notified that he knew his rivals would not be slow in the upcoming 2012 Formula 1 season.
“It's better than nothing, better than last for sure,” he said. “I don't think this is a real result and I know more than anybody about this situation. I don't think the McLaren and Red Bull are so slow.”
The Japanese driver said that there was no problem in getting heat into the tyres but it seemed that there would be more need for the pit shops due to the degradation of the new tyres.
However, Sauber finally was able to go for long distances in the race after struggling in the last season because of tyre warm-ups.
Moreover, Kobayashi said that he had a better understanding about the soft compound after he set the fastest lap time of the week on soft-tyres despite having an almost similar short-run on super soft tyres during the testing session.
“When I did the fast time on super-softs maybe I made a mistake with warm-up,” he admitted. “I know soft compounds better than super-softs so I can build up the warm-up and everything, but super-softs I have no idea how to use it, so I could not use them
well. But I think the grip is more with super-softs.”
Kobayashi believed that the long runs were the focus for the final test in the next week and he declared that Sauber would not be able to bring a great amount of updates for the upcoming week to Barcelona.
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