Daniil Kvyat finished ninth in the Australian Grand Prix but felt seventh was a distinct possibility had he not been forced to pit a second time due to needing his air system topped up on his STR12.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso racer drove a strong race at Albert Park, making a later first pit stop than many of his rivals, and was making the most of the extra grip to close on Sergio Perez, only for his extra stop wasting the opportunity and dropping him to ninth behind team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr.
Kvyat hopes the pace the team showed all weekend long in Australia continues into the next event in China in two weeks time, and he feels the team can be pleased with their performance.
“What a good race! It was just a shame that we had to make an extra stop during the final laps, as we had to fill my car with air again… If it hadn’t been for that, P7 was definitely on the table and we were fighting for it well!” said Kvyat.
“The team has done a fantastic job all weekend and I’m very glad about that – congratulations and thank you everyone! We now need to keep pushing and fighting for more points like today.
“Physically speaking, it wasn’t an easy race but I felt good the whole time – I need to thank my trainer for that, we worked very well throughout the whole winter!
“All in all, a good way to start the season, showing strong pace and with both cars in the points; now we can start to prepare for China and we can all be pleased with ourselves.”
