Kamui Kobayashi was relieved to end his points drought in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after finishing in 10th place in the race. The Japanese driver had not been in the points since the German Grand Prix in July.
"I am happy to have scored a point today," he said, "I have had a pretty long period without scoring and for me it was important to put an end to this.
"I had a really good start and was able to make up five positions on lap one. Actually, the performance of the tires during and after the start was better than expected.
"I started on the medium compound as I was only 16th on the grid, and this is obviously a situation in which you have to take chances. But we knew it would be a difficult first stint, and it was not really clear how long those tires would last. They dropped off after a few laps and then I lost three positions before I pitted after lap five for soft tires. I think overall it was a good race by us."
Teammate Sergio Perez finished in 11th position after having to change his strategy due to a damaged front wing on the opening lap of the race. The Mexican rookie admitted he was hoping for more.
"I had higher hopes for the race today," he said. "It is a shame what happened on lap one. There was a queue into Turn 7 and I couldn't avoid hitting Adrian Sutil's car. It wasn't immediately clear how big the damage was, but then the team told me my front wing was broken and I had to pit after lap two.
"We then decided to go for the medium compound when we did the nose change. On my third stint, again on soft tires, I was driving in 10th for a while, but then I struggled with the tires and also for the last 12 laps my KERS wasn't working."