Formula One news

Kobayashi pleased with surprise F1 debut

Kamui Kobayashi replaced an ill Timo Glock at Suzuka on Friday. The German has not felt well since arriving in Japan on Thursday and the team decided it was better to give the regular driver an extra day of rest. Toyota's test and reserve driver, Kobayashi, enjoyed every moment of his official Formula One debut in his home country.

"I only heard I would be driving today at 8.30 this morning, when I was on my way to the circuit!" the GP2 driver explained. "It was a bit of a surprise because, even though I knew Timo was sick, I wasn't expecting this!

"It was a really good opportunity for me but the conditions were pretty bad and I didn't get a lot of laps in the end. I had quite a good run in the first session and was trying to improve step-by-step.

"It was important not to make any mistakes because I wanted to complete as many laps as possible, for me and the team. I wasn't pushing 100 percent due to the wet conditions but, still, the lap times were pretty good, especially considering I don't have much experience of this track and haven't driven here for six years.

"The car feels like it has improved a lot since I last drove it in February; it's difficult to judge in the wet but I was really impressed with how much development has been done in that time."

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