Sunday: Kobayashi, on the podium at Suzuka, doesn’t realize yet

Kamui Kobayashi – 3rd:

« I still can’t believe it, it’s hard to comprehend: I made my first podium in Suzuka! It was a fantastic race, and we worked really hard to score these points since Friday when we were lacking pace. But the Sauber team did a great job to fix that.

Starting in third position obviously helped a lot, and the long stints I did on Friday also made me very confident for the race. The team has designed an excellent car this year as you can see with the podiums my teammate has achieved. Sometimes I was close to the podium too, but I never have any luck. It means so much to me to finally get there. Maybe from now on, things will be easier.

I did a very long final stint and Jenson [Button] switched to fresh tires later. My rear tires were in really bad condition towards the end and I had a lot of oversteer. But despite that I had to push to defend my place on the podium. It was only in the last lap that I really allowed myself to think that I could keep him behind me because the best overtaking opportunity, at the end of the straight, had passed. Then, I saw all the fans and the raised arms. It means a lot to me and I want to thank the Japanese fans.

Sergio Perez – Retirement:

I really feel sorry for the team. It worked well when I overtook Lewis Hamilton for the first time on the sixth lap, but then it didn’t work when I tried again. Lewis went pretty late on the inside and I only had room on the outside, but it’s undeniably my fault. The race didn’t start well for me either when Romain Grosjean caused chaos [at the second corner] and I lost positions.