Daniil Kvyat felt there was no more pace that he could have extracted from his car during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, and was happy to out-qualify team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr on Saturday.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver will start down in thirteenth place on the grid at Suzuka, but felt the laps he did during both Q1 and Q2 were good.
“I’m quite happy with my qualifying session,” admitted Kvyat. “Both my Q1 and Q2 laps were good and to be honest I don’t think there was much more to extract from the car today and I did my best.
“I also think the whole team around me works very well, we now follow our own system which works well – they deserve the good laps I put in!”
Kvyat admits that his confidence is returning, and this is being shown by his improved driving, and is eager to get racing on Sunday, even though he might need some luck to get into the points.
“We will now go for it in tomorrow’s race and see how close we can get to those point positions,” said Kvyat. “It will be interesting if the weather mixes it all up a bit, but it’s not something we can ask for and we are ready for any scenario – we will just settle in and see what we can do from a P13.
“I’m feeling better and better in the car, much more confident every time and I look forward to tomorrow’s race!”