Both Toro Rossos in the top ten at Sochi with Kvyat ahead of Red Bull
Friday 17 October 2014 17:42, UK
A jubilant Daniil Kvyat has revelled in producing a career-best performance in qualifying for the Russian GP after claiming fifth on the grid.
A week after being announced as a Red Bull driver for 2015, Kvyat went a long way to vindicating his appointment as Sebastian Vettel’s successor by rising to the challenge of driving in front of his home crowd with a career-best performance in qualifying.
“It’s a great feeling, I was very happy, fifth place is a great opportunity for tomorrow,” the youngster told Sky Sports F1.
“So far we’ve been very confident all weekend, but the race will be tricky. We’re only seven-tenths off pole, so everything was so close and so everything can happen tomorrow. I will be giving it my absolute best to go forward.
“We are surrounded by Mercedes engines so it will be important to stay ahead of them and run our own race. But it will be great to go a little bit ahead.”
The Russian will start Sunday’s race ahead of both Red Bulls on a day of discomfort for Toro Rosso’s ‘mother team’ with Daniel Ricciardo, Kvyat’s team-mate next year, only seventh on the road and World Champion Sebastian Vettel unable to reach the top-ten shoot-out.
Jean-Eric Vergne, however, was a peripheral figure in the final segment of qualifying, and suspects a fault on his Toro Rosso after losing out to Kvyat by over half a second.
“I was extremely slow today and I don’t know why,” said the Frenchman. “I lost time everywhere around the track and I’m wondering if there was a problem somewhere, which did not allow me to get the best out of the car. We will have a look at all the data, trying to understand what happened and be quicker again tomorrow.”
