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Perez hoping for qualifying boost at Hockenheim

ESPN Staff
July 14, 2012 « Lotus to have 'interesting updates' | McLaren's development will remain 'aggressive' »
Sergio Perez has qualified 15th at the last three rounds © Sutton Images
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Sergio Perez says Sauber needs to focus on its qualifying performance at the German Grand Prix after his recent struggles to make Q3.

Perez has qualified 15th at the last three races, although he has still managed to score 17 points. However, he thinks better results are possible if he can qualify higher.

"For us it remains important to do better in qualifying, so our Saturday performance is what we have to focus on first," he said "Our car is quick and if we could just get everything right this time we have good chances for a nice race result. In Hockenheim I especially like the stadium part that is, driving wise, challenging and has a great atmosphere."

Kamui Kobayashi is also looking forward to a good result, but said the car's competitiveness would depend on how well the most recent updates work in the dry.

"We are not totally sure how the updates we took to Silverstone work, as we haven't really been able to confirm these in practice in dry conditions. Maybe we need to do some more fine-tuning on these, so it will be interesting to see how this happens in Hockenheim. I think our car performs well on all the circuits - high speed or slow speed ones - so I am not worried about our performance there. We shall just focus on trying to get our best result there."

Sauber CEO Monisha Kalternborn is hoping for a good result to round off the first half of the season.

"We have failed to score points this season several times and for a variety of reasons. In hindsight it doesn't help to pine for those points, as now we have to move forward. The Sauber C31 has proved to be quick on all types of circuits. Plus we've got two strong drivers - Sergio has been on the podium twice this year, and Kamui has been able to shine with a fourth in qualifying and a fifth in a race. Both have a fastest race lap to their names. We have everything it takes to wind up the first half of the season in a positive way, and that's our aim for Hockenheim."

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