Daniil Kvyat continued his sensational start to life in Formula One by scoring points for the second race in succession at Sepang. The Russian teenager followed up ninth in Australia with tenth in Malaysia and with Bahrain to come this weekend, a circuit Kvyat has Formula One experience at from testing, the rookie believes there is more to come.
“It’s good to finish in the top ten for a second time in a row now. This afternoon’s race was very difficult and intense with a lot of fighting. The first two stints were hard when I was fighting the Williams and McLaren in the early stages, but they were faster than me on the straight. I was quite happy with the final stint and having managed to defend my position. Overall it was a good weekend and I hope we continue to improve like this as the car definitely has potential. So I’m looking forward to going straight to Bahrain to race again in a week’s time. It will be interesting to be on a track where we have actually tested with this car.”
Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne had a miserable afternoon which began at the start when he was swallowed up by the field. The Frenchman was then involved in a collision with Jules Bianchi and Pastor Maldonado before his lack of power eventually ended his race.
“I think I had a great start today but very soon I felt some problems with the car. I lost power in the car and I just saw everybody overtaking me. Then I found myself in a sandwich between a Caterham and Bianchi and maybe I was a bit too ambitious to think I could try and pass the two cars. It was just not possible and this resulted in the collision, which damaged my front wing. At this point I knew that my race was compromised, so I was hoping for some rain and maybe a safety car to change the cards on the table and re-join the pack. But then I continued to suffer with the car and my race was over. It’s really a shame, as this was a race in which we could have been strong and achieve a good result. The race pace on hard tyres was pretty good. On the positive side, we have a good car and we won’t have to wait long before being back on track, as Bahrain is just around the corner.”
