The Scuderia Toro Rosso team of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat had a positive Friday, with both cars being placed firmly midfield and without any major technical issues for either of the young drivers.
Sainz had stayed relatively similar in both his placings in the first two free practices; tenth in FP1 with a time of 1:18.044 minutes, and then eleventh in FP2 with 1:17.342 minutes. This is the Spaniard’s first time driving a Formula 1 car at the Hockenheimring, having been missed off the calendar in Sainz’ rookie year.
“It was good to drive here for the first time with an F1 car – it was obviously quite challenging, but I enjoyed it,” commented Sainz. “The conditions out there today were tricky, especially with the wind that picked-up during this afternoon’s FP2 and there was also a bit less grip on track.”
He also seemed content with the pace the Toro Rosso achieved, but was aware that they need to up their game in order to keep up with the other midfield teams.
“We don’t look too bad here, but we still need to keep finding time – I think the others could improve massively for tomorrow and we have to make sure we do the same,” said Sainz. “It’s very competitive out there and the long straights don’t make it easy for us, but this doesn’t mean we won’t stop working on it! I’m feeling positive and I look forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Russian driver Daniil Kvyat put in a highly respectable 1:18.008 in FP1 to put him in ninth position, ahead of his teammate, but couldn’t quite maintain that momentum in FP2, where he came twelfth with 1:17.367. Nevertheless, he was impressed by the relative ease of the day.
“It was quite a clean Friday, something we had been missing for a while, so we definitely have a good baseline for the rest of the weekend,” said Kvyat.
“Of course, we still have a few bits and pieces to digest and to correct for tomorrow and if we do it right we should get better and better. I felt quite good in the car and I enjoy driving here, it’s a pleasant track from the good old days.”
