Monaco Grand Prix – Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat will line up in P8 after recovering from a relatively low-key Thursday practice session day.
Toro Rosso have been consistently strong throughout the Monaco weekend, although it was Alexander Albon who was the attention grabber in Thursday practice. While Albon was able to finish strongly in the top ten, Kvyat seemed to struggle a little for outright pace and wasn’t able to follow suit.
However, the all important qualifying session saw a role reversal as Kvyat put together an excellent run in Q3 to climb into the top, finishing in P8 at the chequered flag. Albon wasn’t far behind though, finishing in P10, with the pair separated by 0.3 seconds.
“I’m very happy with that.” said Kvyat afterwards. “Every lap was very competitive from Q1. It was important to be able to stay within the limit, there’s tempation to push more and more and the car was doing exactly what I wanted. We really turned it around from Thursday and when I get what I want from the car, I’m very comfortable and competitive. It’s my third Q3 in a row and I’m very happy with my performance.”
Asked about what had changed between Thursday and Saturday, he said it was just a case of cleaning up his own driving rather than wholesale changes to the car: “The difference between Thursday and Saturday looked a lot worse than it was. I knew there was a little bit missing from me and a bit of the car, but I think the main difference in the end came from me after we tidied the car up a bit.”
“Around here, it’s about driver confidence – that’s really important. I just had to do a clean Q3 which I did, and that worked out really well.”
With Toro Rosso’s chassis comparing favourably to other midfield runners on a track that rewards a nimble car, Kvyat said this result means the team are taking great satisfaction in knowing they’ve got a strong baseline to work with: “The midfield teams are very close and this is a very good sign we’ve a competitive car. We’re very satisfied with this.”
“Everything was working well today, maybe a little bit of Q1 traffic but that was the same for everyone. We did our thing, and we followed our program and we didn’t change anything – I was really happy with the tyres today.”
“Overtaking chances here are very low during the race and the positions, unless something unlikely happens, will be consolidated after the first lap. Regardless of starting position, we always aim to end in the top ten and tomorrow is no different.””
