Kobayashi disappointed with seventh

Kobayashi's Canadian Grand Prix weekend could not have got off to a worse start, after a crash in Friday's second practice session damaged his car and cost him over half an hour of running time.

After an unspectacular qualifying session saw him line up 13th, Kobayashi made expert use of his Sauber on the rain-soaked Montreal track, managing to stay out on his initial wet tyres for the first 25 laps.

This meant that when the race was halted, the Sauber team could change his tyres for free - and Kobayashi then held off Felipe Massa's Ferrari until he was passed on lap 51.

"Originally I qualified 13th so then it is not bad to finish seventh, but on the other hand I started second after the long red flag and looking from there the result is disappointing," said Kobayashi.

"We have scored points and in the end this is most important. We have proved we are good in the wet, but when the track became dry my pace wasn't good enough to defend my position."

Having fallen behind Massa and Schumacher, Kobayashi was hit from behind by Nick Heidfeld, who was running faster and was caught out by Kobayashi running slightly offline.

The Japanese then lost places to Jenson Button and Vitaly Petrov, before Massa, recovering from losing his front wing, used his DRS to beat Kobayashi across the line by 0.04 seconds.

Kobayashi's temporary team-mate for the weekend, Pedro de la Rosa, was running ninth at the restart but was unable to hold on to a points finish, eventually coming home in 12th.

"Just before the restart Jenson Button and I touched and I had to pit because of a damaged front wing," explained the Spanish veteran. "This ruined my race, I lost many positions, and I even lost a few more later when I got stuck in first gear."

"I tried to recover from this as well as possible, but points were then out of reach. I must say it could have been a lot better today," he added.