Kamui Kobayashi has said that glitches with the latest edition of the Sauber car are not a big deal.

“Performance-wise, this year is much quicker,” said Kobayashi. Also “I looked at last year’s test times and it was off, but the track here is still dirty and my car is still not set up. It is pretty similar to last year and the laptime is a lot better.”

Kobayashi completed more than 100 laps on the opening day of testing, more than any other driver, with the only stoppage caused by the team completing an out-of-fuel test run.

“In my first season in 2010, we hardly had any problems in the winter, but once we started the races we had big problems. Compared to that, I think we are in good shape. We just had a couple of troubles and we just have to understand that,” he added.

“The team did a very good job to recover from a really bad qualifying,” he noted, “I had a good start and also a good race pace. It was important for us to finish ahead of Toro Rosso and I’m glad we managed to do that. The strategy was good and the car was as well - many thanks to the guys.”

Lewis Hamilton himself agrees with the statements of Kobayashi. “After seeing the replay, I see that now the guilt has been one hundred percent mine. I did not leave enough space for Kobayashi, I thought it had happened.”

Kamui Kobayashi had started 14th on the softer tyres, stopped twice and finished 16th. Overall the Sauber C30-Ferrari was not quick enough on the Valencia street circuit to allow the drivers to attack.

Monaco certainly continued the thrills experienced so far in the 2011 Formula One season. From red-flag restarts to strategy changing on the fly, the smallest track on the schedule delivered in a big way.

Sauber team have been regarded as an upper ranked team because their C31 is faster than the Toro Rosso cars and the Force India cars. Both Kamui and Sergio have showed good speed in the opening three races of the season and are placed 11th and 20th respectively.

Sauber team boss, Peter Sauber, has said that both team drivers, Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, are the same in the team but the leading driver role is being played by the Japanese driver. Sauber added that the 2011 Formula 1 aim has been achieved and seven points are good in the constructor’s championship table.

“When the drives were being spent, I had a lot of understeer. Instead when I rode with new tires I was able to overcome the two Toro Rosso, but it was not easy to overtake on this occasion, we needed a good straight line speed to advance into the first corner and I really did not have much speed. ”

But the team are yet to announce who his team mate will be. They may keep Pedro de la Rosa in the car but rumours have linked GP2 front runners Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez to the seat.

“We had a very difficult start to the season, but we’ve worked together to pull ourselves out of that situation. I feel very much at home in Peter Sauber’s team and am very pleased we’ll be working together again in 2011.

However, for now I’m focusing one hundred per cent on this year. There are still six Grand Prix weekends to go in 2010, and we’ll be hoping to make up more ground.” Said Kamui Kobayashi.

And with his performance having excited fans and the media, Sauber is keeping its fingers crossed that there could be commercial benefits off the back of it.

Sauber’s managing director Monisha Kaltenborn said: “Ideally you want the driver from the country he comes from to give that kind of performance. I think he did a great job, because he had a lot of pressure from the public, and we could see the amount of media attention he was getting.

“It is an ideal situation to have for the Japanese market. We understand the economic difficulties, especially in Japan, but we hope this performance can give them a push to support him.”

Although Kobayashi made contact with other cars during his spirited drive, Kaltenborn said she was not too concerned that his efforts would end in him crashing out.

“When you see him do these kinds of things, for a minute you are a little worried and you hope that all goes well,” she explained. “But on the other hand, you expect him to fight. We expect him to do these things – and he is of course quite daring.”