The Scuderia Toro Rosso team were able to leave Spa-Francorchamps having scored two points through Daniil Kvyat’s ninth place, while Jean-Eric Vergne finished just outside the points in eleventh. Kvyat and Vergne had orginially finished tenth and twelfth but gained a spot when the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen was handed a post-race 20-second penalty for forcing the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso off the track.
Kvyat was able to climb into the top ten towards the end of the race, and inherited ninth after Magnussen’s penalty, and was engulfed in a good battle with the Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. He was particularly happy to keep Hulkenberg behind him as he was on fresher option Pirelli tyres than the Russian STR driver.
“This was a good but tough race, especially the end where I was defending my position against Hulkenberg who was on new options,” said Kvyat. “That was quite thrilling, as I had to look after my tyres and at the same time fight to keep tenth place. The car handling during the race was good and I was quite pleased that the weather stayed dry.
“All in all, it was a positive weekend, where we were able to improve step by step and I’m happy to take away [two] points from this race. I can’t wait to get back into the car in two weeks’ time when we will be in Monza.”
Team-mate Vergne was disappointed with his start that cost him a number of positions, and was therefore stuck in traffic that ensured his tyres did not work for as long as he would have wanted. He just missed out on the points in eleventh after Magnussen’s penalty, and wants to look at the data to see what he could have done differently, with the team’s home race at Monza coming up in two weeks time.
“The start wasn’t great,” admitted Vergne. “There were some cars already passing me by on the straight and I couldn’t do anything to defend myself. It’s a bit frustrating to sit in the traffic, with my tyres that didn’t last very long and suffering of a lack of performance.
“We need now to have a look at all the data to see if there is anything we can do to be back in Monza in a better condition. We are not far from the points but we need to sort a few things out, have a clean weekend and score some points at our home Grand Prix.”
Team Principal Franz Tost admitted that the perforamcne of the Toro Rosso car was not as good as some of their rivals but praised both drivers for doing the best they could with the tools at their disposal, and was happy to score points with Kvyat. He also was gracious to congratulate last year’s Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo for his third win of the season for his Red Bull Racing team.
“First of all congratulations to Daniel Riccardo and Red Bull for another win,” said Tost. “Daniel’s race was very exciting, so really well done! As for us, Daniil scored another [two] points, which is quite important for the team and for the Constructor Championship.
Unfortunately, our performance during the race was not on a level to be able to fight and beat the teams that were in front of us. Both our drivers did a very good job, always pushing as much as possible. We leave this great circuit with a tenth position and we are looking forward to our home Grand Prix in Monza.”
