Daniil Kvyat believes qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix was not easy, and he will start in fifteenth.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver reached Q2 of qualifying but even with clean laps, there was no pace so it was hard for him to fight for higher positions. He will start the Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr.
Kvyat believes he extracted the most out of the car but it was just not enough to be higher up the grid order. With the likes of Renault Sport and McLaren-Honda performing stronger than Toro Rosso, Sunday will not be easy but Kvyat can see the team trying their best to achieve a good result.
“Not an easy qualifying,” said Kvyat. “We managed to get through to Q2 where we had clean laps but no pace, which made it difficult to fight for higher positions.
“It was very close between Carlos and I but, to be honest, we were just fighting each other today… It’s quite a tough situation as the car is missing speed here and I think we extracted the most out of the car but it’s just not our track. A P15 shouldn’t be what we aim for but right now this is where we are.
“For tomorrow, our long-run pace doesn’t look that bad, but overtaking here is a difficult task still, so we will see what we can come up with. The good thing is that this new tarmac offers some different opportunities which we will have to analyse overnight. It won’t be easy but we will certainly try our best!”
