Kobayashi perplexed by poor start

[DexteR]

Kamui Kobayashi was left perplexed by his poor start to the Chinese Grand Prix after dropping back to tenth place in the race.

An impressive qualifying performance left Kobayashi third on the grid at Shanghai and with only the two Mercedes cars ahead of him - which were notoriously hard on their tyres - hopes were high that Kobayashi could challenge for at least a podium. In the race, however, a poor getaway dropped Kobayashi to fifth and from there he slipped back before eventually finishing tenth.

Kobayashi admitted he was disappointed with the result, and said he was unsure what happened at the start.

"Of course after what we did in qualifying the race result is disappointing," Kobayashi said. "I'm not really sure what happened at the start, my car just didn't move, it was a bit strange and I lost positions immediately. Then I was stuck in traffic for most of the time, also we made the second pit stop a bit late and the tyres had gone."

Despite his disappointment, Kobayashi said he was heartened to see that Sauber can be competitive on both a Saturday and a Sunday.

"Quite often we have recovered in the race from a bad qualifying, but today it was the other way round. So we have proven we can be strong in both qualifying and race, and next time we will put this all together."

[Chandbhai]

NIce