Brake issues concern Sergio Perez

Ferrari protégé and Sepang hero Sergio Perez suffered from brake issues during the second practice session in Shanghai.

The near-winner at Sepang was 4th in the morning session but dropped to 11^th in the afternoon session. He said, that he was happier with the overall balance of the car in the morning session as compared to the afternoon session. In the afternoon, Perez had a big lock-up which resulted in serious damage to his tyres.

“The balance of my car had actually been better in the first free practice session compared to the afternoon,” said Perez. “I wasn’t too happy in the second free practice. I had problems with the brakes, which didn’t work the way they should, and I lost too much front tyre temperature on the back straight.

On the contrary, his teammate Kamui Kobayashi was happier with the car in the afternoon session as compared to in the morning. He finished 5^th in FP1 and was the best of the rest, behind the trio of McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull in FP2.

“We had a few minor issues to fix, but overall today’s practice sessions went smoothly,” he said. “Sometimes the visibility was a bit poor and this didn’t help to predict where the track was and wasn’t slippery. My car definitely felt better balanced in the afternoon’s practice session than it did in the morning, and I believe we look okay here on this track” said Kobayashi.

Head of Track Engineering, Sauber F1 team, Giampaolo Dall’Ara was relatively satisfied with the team’s performance in both the sessions. “Our first day here at the Shanghai International Circuit went okay, despite the fact we had to adapt the programme a bit due to the drizzle in the morning, and also the brake problems in the afternoon on Sergio’s car cost us a set of tyres. But nevertheless we got a lot of work done today. So, from the engineering side, it was a positive day. Tomorrow we will get to know more about where we are performance wise“.