Russia’s own Daniil Kvyat was very happy after achieving the best qualifying performance of his brief Formula 1 career. Better still, the result came at home Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom.
The Toro Rosso rookie, who will be promoted to the senior team Red Bull and joining Australian Daniel Ricciardo next season, qualified fifth-fastest in Saturday’s qualifying session.
His previous best qualifying result was seventh at the Red Bull Ring in Austria; it was his sixth appearance in Q3 in his debut season.
“It feels great securing P5 in qualifying in my home country,” Kvyat beamed afterwards.
“It was already looking quite promising in practice, so I’m very happy we could put it all together and achieve my best ever qualifying result.
“The car felt very good and everything worked out well so well done to the team. I will do my best in the race, and I will definitely aim to finish the race in at least fifth position.”
Meanwhile, outgoing teammate Jean-Éric Vergne, also made it into the Q3 session, but finished seven-tenths behind and the slowest of the ten runners.
“I lost time everywhere and I’m wondering if there was a problem somewhere, which didn’t allow me to get the best out of my car,” the Frenchman said, bewildered by a lacklustre Q3 showing.
“We will have a look at all the data, trying to understand what happened.”
Image via XPB Images
Michael Terminello
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