Pedro de la Rosa was left counting the costs of a late error, which forced him off the road and ended his hopes of a points finish.
The veteran Spaniard had been running in the top ten in the final stages of the race, only to lose control of his car and spin into the gravel – he eventually rescued the car to finish twelfth.
Despite this, Kamui Kobayashi managed to bring points home for the Hinwil-based team, with a superb drive from the back of the field to eighth.
Kamui Kobayashi – 8th: “It was a very difficult race, but for me everything worked out fine. The team made very good decisions in choosing the right tyres at the right time, and the pit stops went well. For parts of the race the track conditions were changing every lap, and that was not easy. Especially after yesterday’s qualifying, I am very happy I made no mistakes, brought the car home and scored four more points after starting the race 17th.”
Pedro de la Rosa – 12th: “It was a very interesting race. After I had to start last I should not complain about finishing 12th, but two laps before the end I was tenth and just in the points. I was on full wet tyres, the rain was not heavy enough and there was not enough water on the track to stop destroying those tyres. They went off quite quickly and when I tried to catch Vitaly Petrov I made a mistake. I went into the gravel and lost two places. Nevertheless for me it was the right move to go for full wet tyres. We had to take our chances today. It was more or less the same at my first pit stop when we fitted intermediates, but then had to change back to slicks. But, as I said, we had to take our chances.”
Peter Sauber, BMW Sauber team principal
“It was another strong and mature performance by Kamui in very difficult conditions after starting from way down the grid. Also compliments to the team for choosing the right tyre strategy and executing it very well during the pit stops.”
James Key, BMW Sauber technical director
“I’m very pleased we scored some points today after a very difficult day yesterday. It was a race with a lot of changing weather conditions, and the right calls had to be made at the right time. We had three spells of rain all together. The team made the right decisions, and Kamui did an excellent job by controlling the car in these difficult conditions and bringing it home in eighth. He came from a long way behind and made up a lot of positions. With Pedro we tried a slightly different strategy at the end of the race with full wet tyres, because there was a chance of heavier rain. This seemed to work initially, but it looks as if the tyres went off quite quickly, and Pedro couldn’t hold on to tenth. All in all a reasonable recovery given the situation we faced yesterday.”
