Sauber's pace (Perez)

[Racer_D]

Mr. Perez - I assume he started on soft tyres.
He ran a good 3 seconds off the pace on his first stint (1:35 vs 1:32 Vettel early on, and right before his stop 1:34 vs 1:31 of the leaders).

Then, Lap 24 he pits and takes hard tyres.

Within 4 laps, he's into the 1:31s, gets into the 1:30s for a good part of his 2nd stint and remains in the 1:31s all through the end, for a whopping 34 laps!
He even got a 1:29 at some point, briefly the fastest lap of the race.

I guess that's a pretty awesome feat!
If only his first stint would have been better...

[Racer_D]

Perez did his second stint on soft tyres....
That makes it all the more impressive. Very intelligent drive, and quick too.

[marcush.]

sauber not really has an explanation for it...maybe the pirelli guys put the wrong color on those tyres..
even if it was for nothing as both sauber cars are disqualified due to rear wing non conformity to the rules...

[alberto222mx]

It's a shame that good debut of Perez and Kobayashi good race have been lost by disqualification, however I think the pace of Sauber's very good. No doubt they have a good car this year, and a good pair of drivers.

[PlatinumZealot]

He's one fast Mexican! I actually think his speed is up there with the likes of Vettel so righlt so that My gut tells Kobayashi will have a hard life with him at Sauber.

[Byronrhys]

He's one fast Mexican! I actually think his speed is up there with the likes of Vettel so righlt so that My gut tells Kobayashi will have a hard life with him at Sauber.

please don't blight the poor boy like how you blighted Toro rosso( remember they were 3rd), Kob was 12 seconds off him on a 2 stopper, don't jump on it yet but he is fast for sure.

[Racer_D]

Well his speed *was* already up there with Vettel's but he was on soft tires for more than half the race.


Check this out, the laptimes near the end of the race:
http://i56.tinypic.com/33k3n6r.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/2d03z8.jpg

Vettel and Hamilton stopped on Lap 36 for hard tyres.
Perez stopped on Lap 24 for the soft ones and remained on them.

So Perez manages the same times as Vettel, with tires that other drivers changed after 15-20 laps.

And he set an impressive fastest lap too, 6th fastest (Massa changed late to soft, he was light, so he went very fast). Not taking into account Massa, Perez did a fastest lap only 0.5 secs slower than Alonso.
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/ ... _laps.html

I really think that's pretty impressive, very much so for a rookie. To be fast and nurse the tires at the same time, is super.

[PlatinumZealot]

He's one fast Mexican! I actually think his speed is up there with the likes of Vettel so righlt so that My gut tells Kobayashi will have a hard life with him at Sauber.

please don't blight the poor boy like how you blighted Toro rosso( remember they were 3rd), Kob was 12 seconds off him on a 2 stopper, don't jump on it yet but he is fast for sure.

Wait don't kick me just yet!, Toro rosso WILL be up there. Remember Buemi made it into Q3 after all, My predictons were made after the midpoint of the third test after-all. However right now they just need time to make some adjustments. I still stand by that car, it has good balance and grip, it's just waiting to be unlocked.

On Perez now.. he's damn fast. Reminds me of Hamilton.

[sticky667]

I expect to see Perez filling Massa's shoes in the next 2 yrs. He's an FDA member and brings a ton of sponsorship just like Alonso. He's been using their simulator quite a bit to the run up to Australia too.

Sadly, as much as I like the guy, I'm a Ferrari hater through and through.