Daniil Kvyat was pleased with his performance and the result of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, with the Russian securing his best finish of the season in fourth.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver had been inside the top ten all afternoon long but was only running seventh heading to the restart following a late safety car period. However, he managed to overtake three cars – Alexander Albon, Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc – on the first lap on the restart to run fourth.
He pressurised Daniel Ricciardo for a few laps, but once the Australian managed to get his tyres working in their optimum window, he was forced to settle for fourth. However, he was satisfied with his performance throughout the weekend at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
“It was a very good and fun race, the car felt amazing and I really enjoyed myself out there!” said Kvyat. “The Safety Car restart was very important, and I managed to overtake a few cars on that lap.
“Unfortunately, Daniel managed to warm up his tyres so even if I pushed very hard until the end to overtake him, I just missed out on the final podium spot. It’s a shame but I’m still very satisfied with my driving and happy with the team’s job.
“We recovered small points to Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, so I hope we can give them a little fight until the end.”
Imola retirement ‘quite difficult to take’ for Gasly
Team-mate Pierre Gasly admitted his retirement from the race was ‘difficult to take’ as he felt he had the pace to also finish inside the top five.
Gasly had qualified his AlphaTauri fourth on the grid and tried to get ahead of eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton at the start only to be squeezed out heading into turn one, with the delay costing him a position to Ricciardo.
However, the Frenchman’s race was over early as a technical issue on board his AT01 was deemed terminal, and he was left to watch a race where he felt good points were on offer around a track where he had been quick all weekend long.
“This one is quite difficult to take,” said Gasly. “I had a great start and tried to go alongside Lewis, but he decided to close the door quite hard and I had to back off and lost one position to Daniel, but after that, I felt really good in the car and we were running in P5.
“The guys spotted a drop of water pressure on the laps to the grid before the race, they tried everything to fix it but unfortunately, we had to retire the car after a few laps. It’s very sad because there was a big opportunity for us today.
“The whole weekend went so well, it was the best practice and the best Qualifying we’ve had and the car felt very strong from the beginning. It’s never nice to retire, but it’s especially tough here in Imola for our home race, because we knew there was a potential top-five result on the table.”
