Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat admitted that it was a tough race at the Circuit of the Americas after colliding with Sergio Perez in the Sahara Force India F1 Team on the opening lap, but the Russian managed to salvage a twelfth place finish, which became eleventh when Kevin Magnussen was handed a post-race time penalty.
“Quite a tough day for me today. I think I had a good start, but we then had to switch to a one-stop race after getting a 10-second penalty for my incident with Perez during the first lap. This compromised our race and it wasn’t easy to make it work, but we tried our very best and kept pushing until the end.”
Toro Rosso put Kvyat on the Medium tyre which meant the Russian had to run long into the race, but this meant he was vulnerable from drivers on a more aggressive strategy, including Magnussen, who passed Kvyat at the end of the back straight but completed the move off the circuit, which ensured the penalty that promoted Kvyat back to eleventh.
“I have to say we did a very long stint on the Medium tyre and the management was very good. It’s just a shame that we lost the opportunity to fight for some more points today.”
This weekend brought good news for Kvyat who signed a new deal with Toro Rosso for next season, with the Russian having suffered a difficult season so far after being demoted from the Red Bull Racing team after just found rounds of 2016.
The Russian driver will head into the final three races full of confidence and reassurance from the Toro Rosso team but he will still be under pressure to match his team-mate in the remaining races.
