Daniil Kvyat out-qualified his Infiniti Red Bull Racing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.001s at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Saturday but felt fourth place on the grid was the best he could have hoped for.
The Russian driver felt the gap to the trio ahead of him was too big to bridge, but now turns his focus to the race in which he wants a clean race and to finish strongly, especially after the disappointment of his retirement from the race at the Circuit of the Americas last week.
“Qualifying was interesting today,” revealed Kvyat. “It was all quite clean in Q1 and Q2, but the track is new and it’s very easy to make a little mistake that can be quite costly, so perhaps no one had the ideal lap in Q3.
“I think P4 reflects our speed; I could have maybe been a couple of tenths quicker in Q3 but anyway it wouldn’t have put us any higher, as P3 was quite a long way ahead. We have done our best today and it gives us some good opportunities for tomorrow.
“In a new race on a new track, everything can happen, but we have to wait and see how fast we are and how much we can make the most of any opportunities. I’m not setting our expectations too high; I just want to have a good, clean, consistent race and grab some good points.”
