Kamui Kobayashi not dreaming of Chinese GP win as Sauber excels again

Coming off the back of his Sauber team-mate Sergio Perez's near-win in Malaysia, Kobayashi qualified in a strong fourth position at Shanghai, but will start from third due to a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton - picked up following a gearbox change.

The Japanese driver admitted he was delighted with the result, but insisted he is staying realistic for the race.

"I am very happy, the team did a great job," said Kobayashi. "For quite a while we have kept saying we need to improve our qualifying performance, and I think this was a clear improvement today.

"Apparently I will be starting from third position tomorrow because Lewis Hamilton had to change his gearbox. This grid position obviously means a lot of chances. However, I am not a dreamer and the target remains the same: score as many points as you can.

"We have a strong car, normally it is also good on tyres and I am looking forward to the race full of confidence."

Perez will also start the race in the top ten, having secured eighth position, and the Mexican said he was hoping for a better result.

"It is obviously a good qualifying result for our team," he said. "Personally I must admit I even hoped for more than P8. After the previous runs had been very promising, on the final lap in Q3, when I was on a fresh set of soft tyres, I suddenly had understeer.

"I don't know where this came from. In any case it will be a tough race tomorrow and I will give it my best."