Daniil Kvyat wishes to speak to FIA race director Charlie Whiting regarding the penalty he received from the stewards in the United States Grand Prix.
On the opening lap at the Circuit of the Americas, the Scuderia Toro Rosso driver hit the Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team VJM09 of Sergio Perez at the Turn Eleven hairpin. Perez span in a result of the tap, along with Kvyat damaging his front wing.
The stewards deemed Kvyat at fault, with him receiving a ten-second time penalty for the collision. The Russian believes Perez moved under braking, a manoeuvre that was banned earlier in the race weekend.
“I think it was a very good start for me, had a very good first lap, then obviously we got into racing at Turn 8 with Perez,” said Kvyat on f1i.com. “Obviously they changed the rule [on Saturday morning] that you can’t move under braking.
“In my view he completely moved under braking, so he moved maybe 10 meters across the track in front of me and he got spun out from me. His race is ruined, my race is ruined, OK, but don’t create the rule if you don’t force it, and I got penalised for that and in my opinion, treat the rules like that… whatever, it’s fine, it’s OK.”
When asked if he will speak to Whiting about the incident, Kvyat replied, “Yeah, I want some clarification because this rule isn’t clear to me at the moment.
“If that’s what he can do on that one then everyone else can do the same and I will do the same. To be honest I have to watch the videos carefully, but that’s my initial feeling, so I’ll speak with Charlie and maybe he’ll change my point of view. Charlie always has a good explanation so we’ll see.”
If the FIA didn’t recently clarify the rules, Kvyat would have accepted the penalty handed to him by the stewards.
“It would have looked like a very aggressive defending move but it would have been probably OK, because that’s what is was before. But now, I didn’t expect this harsh penalty, it was way too much. He was defending very hard and he paid the price for it.”
