Daniil Kvyat continued his impressive debut year in Formula 1 by taking eighth place on the grid for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne missed out on the final part of qualifying by just a tenth of a second and will start thirteenth as Scuderia Toro Rosso had a relatively good qualifying session.
Kvyat was impressive throughout qualifying, getting through to the final part of the session and then managing to out-qualify the two Mercedes-powered Force India’s. He was satisfied how the session went down, and is aiming for a strong result in the race.
“I’m happy with how my Qualifying went today, even though conditions were quite particular and tricky,” said Kvyat. “We had to stay alert and look after all the different factors carefully, including taking care of the tyres. The team did a great job in adjusting to the conditions out there and we managed to do a solid job, also considering where we qualified compared to some of our usual competitors. So I think we can be satisfied with today’s P8 result and definitely aim high in tomorrow’s race.”
Team-mate Vergne missed out on Q3 by just over a tenth of a second, but felt overall it was a good session. He feels optimistic of a good result on Sunday, especially if the forecasted rain arrives, conditions the Frenchman thrives on.
“It was really tight today as we can see reading the times and one tenth has been enough to make it or not into Q3,” said Vergne. “Overall I think it was a good qualifying. I put on used tyres for the first run of Q2, while the others in front of me used a new set and this made the difference. Also considering the weather forecast, which announces possibilities of rain tomorrow and cooler temperatures, to have new tyres available for the race puts me in a favourable condition to achieve a good result tomorrow, even starting from P13.”
Chief Race Engineer Phil Charles felt qualifying went well for the team, especially after struggling for balance all through Friday. He praised both drivers and hopes they can convert their grid positions into some points on Sunday.
“Overall, we are very pleased with today,” said Charles. “Yesterday we were not quite happy with the car of both drivers, but the engineers did a great job last night to fix the slightly different balance issues. They worked productively with both drivers on the set up and as a result we could achieve a decent step forward today.
“Daniil has done a brilliant job in Qualifying, Jean-Eric was just a bit unlucky. He was really close but he’s not quite sneaked into Q3, whereas Daniil, who was just a tenth quicker, did. A bit of a scrappy session in one way, with different strategies for Qualifying with the tyres across the two drivers and JEV was so close in the mid group, where a tenth really makes a big difference.
“Both drivers did a very good job and it’s a real testament to the fact that they have worked hard with their engineers, who sorted their cars for them. Hopefully JEV can have a good race tomorrow and, fingers crossed, Daniil can convert a decent qualifying result. We look forward to tomorrow.”
