Saturday: Ericsson crashed, Kobayashi struggling at Caterham
For the Caterham team, Saturday was almost nightmarish. For the race, they will start from very far back.
Kamui Kobayashi (No. 10) – 20th and 20th
The Japanese driver encountered new problems in the last free practice session. His engineers used his teammate’s settings for the qualifying session. He couldn’t really do what he wanted and couldn’t get past Q1 as he had in Australia: « We went out with everyone else on intermediate tires. But since I couldn’t get them up to temperature enough, I couldn’t get them to work properly. »
For Sunday, he hopes for a wet race and is counting on better reliability to achieve a result: « Now we can focus on tomorrow and hope to go all the way. If it rains like today, anything can happen. »
Marcus Ericsson (#9) – 19th and 22nd
At the beginning of the day, the Swedish rookie was rather satisfied with the progress made: « We have taken a step forward compared to yesterday, especially in terms of overall handling and power unit drivability. »
For his first session in the rain in Q1, he seemed to be on a good path but caused a red flag while attempting a fast lap: « It was a whole new experience for me. With every lap, I was learning more and more and on my last fast lap, I made a mistake in the first sector and wrecked the car. I’m really sorry for the team. »
