Scuderia Toro Rosso made a good impression in Montreal, with Jean-Eric Vergne qualifying an impressive eighth for this weekends Canadian Grand Prix. Daniil Kvyat was not far away from the pace of his French team-mate but will start down in fifteenth position.
Vergne qualified inside the top ten for the second year running in Canada, claiming eighth on the grid this year after his seventh in 2013. With the closeness of the midfield, he was delighted to have qualified so high and will want to impress much like he did a year ago in the race where he finished sixth.
“Today we have done great in qualifying,” said Vergne. “The field is tight so you really have to drive the perfect lap, getting the best out of the car. The team and I managed to achieve our goals and this is the result that rewards all the hard work that we have put in.
“To start from 8th position on the grid is very promising and I will certainly do my best to finish the race and bring home some good points.”
Russian teenager Kvyat will start fifteenth on Sunday, and missed out on the third part of qualifying by less than four tenths of a second. He felt the car was more difficult to drive during qualifying than in practice as a problem with the braking system saw him struggle to match his more experienced team-mate.
“I’m disappointed with how my Qualifying turned out today,” admitted Kvyat. “After the limited running yesterday, the team worked hard overnight and everything seemed to be working fine in this morning’s FP3 session. Then during Qualifying I found the car difficult to drive and I experienced some brake problems.
“We will have to analyse this closely tonight, but I’m sure we will be fine for tomorrow. It is not ideal to start from P15, but as always, I will give it my 100 per cent and aim to finish the race as high as possible.”
Chief Race Engineer Phil Charles praised Vergne for his qualifying efforts, while feeling that the lack of track time on Friday was the main cause of Kvyat starting down in fifteenth. He is confident both drivers will have strong races on Sunday.
“JEV did a brilliant job in Qualifying, producing an excellent Q3 lap to secure P8 for tomorrow’s race,” said Charles. “He looked strong all throughout the weekend, so it’s great to see him confirm his performance with a strong Qualifying result.
“Daniil on the other hand was a bit unlucky today. The fact that he was not able to get much running done yesterday probably hurt him a little bit today even though he did well in FP3. He has shown good potential, so I’m confident that both our drivers will have a strong race tomorrow.”
