Sauber F1 Team
Nico Hulkenberg admits that Sauber expected slightly more in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hulkenberg set the fourteenth fastest time in Q2 and is anticipating a difficult race.
“We always knew it was going to be difficult to get into Q3 today,” he said.
“However, I expected we would be starting closer to the top ten. The car felt quite good in the practice session this morning, but then the wind changed and it seemed very sensitive to that. I think, it will be a long race tomorrow, especially because we know we are lacking pace at this circuit, but we will fight to achieve the best result possible.”
Esteban Gutierrez qualified in eighteenth but will start from the back of the grid as a result of his penalty.
“It’s not a good feeling starting last, but we always knew that this weekend was going to be difficult,” said Gutierrez.
“Our speed this weekend has not been great. It was important to drive a clean qualifying today, but I did my best and this is what I got. It was a bit of a disadvantage to do the race preparation in free practice three, because I didn’t get enough practice on the new tyres on low fuel. However, it was important because the data will help us to prepare the strategy for the race tomorrow.”
