Pedro de la Rosa has revealed that Sauber did not use its new rear wing system in qualifying, claiming that the device requires more testing.
Sauber are one of a handful of teams to have introduced a version of McLaren’s F-duct, in a bid to gain more straight line speed.
de la Rosa could only managed seventeenth for the team after locking up the rear and losing half a second on his fast lap.
The Spaniard was out-qualified by team-mate Kobayashi who was relatively pleased with his fifteenth place.
Kamui Kobayashi – 15th: “Personally I’m happy with the lap I put in. I had no traffic, did the best I could and think I achieved what was possible. We do have areas where we need to improve and we will improve. Overall we don’t have enough grip yet, braking stability is not perfect and my car tends to understeer. I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow’s race and I’m really hungry for a grand prix finish again. The weather prediction says there is a good chance of rain. This would make for an exciting race. I generally like driving in the wet although visibility is always a problem.”
Pedro de la Rosa – 17th: “My first attempt on the soft tyres in Q2 wasn’t good from my side, but the last lap was very good until I made a mistake before turn 14. I locked the rear and it cost me almost half a second. Finishing two places higher up would have been realistic, but not a lot more. The car felt well balanced, so there is nothing to complain about. We did not use our new rear wing system in qualifying because we want to continue testing it.”
James Key, Technical Director: “It was a tough and very close qualifying. Both drivers pushed as hard as they could. We knew we had to get a good lap out of the new tyres. It was also essential to get it all together in the traffic, which we managed to do. At the end there were probably a few more tenths possible. Unfortunately Pedro was putting in a very good lap and just missed out in the hairpin with a little bit of wheel locking, and Kamui maybe had a couple of tenths more to exploit as well. There was potential there to move up a few places, but we are still not in a position to get to Q3. It’s very close, and let’s see what the weather brings tomorrow. We are mid-grid and anything can happen.”
