Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Daniil Kvyat may have ended the practice in sixth place, but his day proved to be far more problematic than the timing screens suggested.
The Toro Rosso driver managed to set the sixth-fastest time during the qualifying simulations, narrowly beating McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and team-mate Alexander Albon.
However, the Russian was only able to complete nine laps in the afternoon session, owing to technical problems and a collision with the barrier.
He spent some time in the garage due to a problem with the steering of the STR14, before being sent out for a late qualifying simulation, which resulted in him setting the midfield pace.
Not long after that, though, he crashed into the barrier on the exit of turn seven, bringing out the red flags. He lost the rear of the car mid-corner and tagged the wall with the rear and front-left corners of the car.
“It was quite a strange day, there was no running in FP1 besides an installation lap, then in FP2 something happened with the steering wheel, so we had to take a break to fix it,” said Kvyat after practice.
“This meant we lost some important running and, consequently, I had to find the limits of the track very quickly on my next run. Unfortunately, I locked up and had an oversteer moment which led to some contact with the wall.
“On the positive side, the feeling of the car was very good before the accident, so we’ll keep pushing to improve even further tomorrow.”
To view the full results from the second free practice session, click here.