New Sauber chief technical director James Key has said that he is happy to see the Swiss team secure their first point of the 2010 season so far in the Turkish Grand Prix, saying that the whole team "deserved" the result.
Sauber lost their BMW backing over the winter, and have struggled for results in 2010 so far. Prior to the Turkish race, they were the only team other than the three 2010 newcomers yet to have scored a point.
But the team secured a much-needed double finish in Istanbul, and Kamui Kobayashi scored the team's first point of the year in 10th place. Pedro de la Rosa followed his team mate home in 11th.
"I'm very pleased we scored a point at this event," Key, who joined the team earlier in the season, "It was also good that we had a two car finish.
"It was fairly eventful in many ways, because, to begin with, it was a case of making sure we were matching the top ten pace, which Kamui did superbly well."
He added that: "Towards the end Kamui's tyres went off quite badly at the front, and he lost quite a lot of lap time, which allowed Pedro and some other cars to catch him up.
"But the fact is both came home in tenth and 11th. I think this is deserved by everyone and we should be very pleased with this result."
Kobayashi himself, who joined the team at the start of 2010 after finishing 2009 in a temporary role with Toyota, also hailed the team's Turkish breakthrough, despite losing a spot to the Force India of Adrian Sutil in the closing stages.
"I am very happy that we finished the race with both cars and got the first point," he grinned, "In the end I could see from the car the canvas on the front right tyre. Therefore I started to be very careful, especially in turn 8, and that's also the reason why I didn't defend any harder against Adrian Sutil."
His team mate de la Rosa added that he felt he could have moved into the top ten had he not been behind his team mate.
"Certainly I would have been fighting at the end if it hadn't been my team-mate in front of me," he lamented, "Our team needed desperately to bring both cars home and score this point. You have to be careful taking risks and this was not the time to attack and risk losing everything.
"It is better this point stays with us rather then going somewhere else. We finished this race being competitive and this is very good."
In a seperate post-race interview with the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, de la Rosa expanded on his failure to challenge for the final point, hinting that the team had told him to hold position behind Kobayashi in the closing stages.
"I am very happy to have been competitive, but I wanted something more," he was quoted as saying, "I was close to the points but when you have to fight your teammate for it, it is difficult.
"I had to restrain myself. I wanted to attack him but on the radio they said other things."
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