The first of their many mid-season updates looked promising for Sauber, as for the first time this season they were seriously competing for championship points.

Kamui Kobayashi showed us the reason we all fell in love with him in the final races of 2009, passing Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi on the final lap with his gung-ho style on full show, as he took 7th. Team boss Peter Sauber hailed the drive as ‘amazing’:

“I can only think of one word for it – amazing! I was obviously thrilled by his two overtaking moves at the end of the race, but what impressed me most was how Kamui mastered his long stint on the hard tyres. At times he was setting some of the fastest lap times of any driver, but still managed to look after his tyres. He also drove very consistently and didn’t allow himself to be put under pressure by Jenson Button. Signing a rookie is always something of a risk; on Sunday Kamui delivered confirmation that we made the right decision.”

James Key the technical director explained why the C29 was so competitive in the race:

“There are several reasons. When a driver finds himself in a competitive position like that he always finds something more in himself because he’s following quicker cars. And Kamui did a very good job. The race also showed that the car works when it’s in the right conditions, but the question we have and we had for several of the last races is why the car is more competitive in race conditions than qualifying. The drivers report that the car is easier to drive in the race, and tyre degradation wasn’t a problem either, so we weren’t particularly hard on the tyres. We need to look into the data, now that both drivers delivered a competitive race after a qualifying that was not up to our expectations. We need to pin down the differences in how the car is feeling and handling and see how we can apply that to qualifying.”

James Key also explained the next development steps for Sauber, and revealed that they have already started work on their 2011 car:

“We are currently in the process of splitting our resources as best we can between the current car and the C30. We are a private team and we don’t have unlimited resources to do everything we want. For Silverstone we have some front wing updates and modifications around the middle of the car. Then for Hockenheim we will have a rear end update which includes a diffuser step as well. The numbers in the wind tunnel are progressing well. At the same time we are focusing on Spa and Monza for lower downforce and drag configurations. And there will be further steps towards the end of the year.”

Kamui Kobayashi said of his moves on Alonso and Buemi:

“My car was feeling good and I had a lot more grip than Fernando and Sébastien with my fresh tyres; my lap times were clearly better. I only had four laps with the new tyres. I was genuinely faster, so I had to give it a try. I just wanted to get the most I could out of the situation. I was sure that I could get past as long as they didn’t make any strange moves under braking. I didn’t expect them to, as both of them are good drivers and would not throw away their points shortly before the end of the race.”

Sauber would have scored their first double points finish, was it not for the daft 5 second penalties dished out to numerous drivers for speeding behind the safety car. Pedro de la Rosa was demoted from 10th to 12th and said:

“No, that came totally out of the blue. I didn’t see the Safety Car delta time on the steering wheel display at all. The Safety Car went out onto the track as I was going through the final corners. These are fast corners, and we were still running close together, fighting for positions, as the race was still in its early stages. At the same time, I spoke to the pits on the radio, because I had been called in for a stop. Eight other drivers obviously had a similar experience. To tell the truth, I also think that if one of us had lifted in response to the delta time, it would have caused a crash. At the end of the day, I was 2.8 seconds too fast and accept my penalty for that, although this offence has not always been punished in the past. Plus, the fact that nine drivers all made the same mistake at the same time indicates that there were special circumstances involved. I found it surprising that the penalty was five seconds; a 20-second time penalty is about right for a drive-through.”