The Scuderia Toro Rosso team scored four points during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix thanks to Carlos Sainz Jr’s eighth place, but Daniil Kvyat was an unfortunate early retiree on Sunday.
Team Principal Franz Tost said an unforeseen electronic shutdown eliminated Kvyat, and he felt that the Russian could have been in contention for a good haul of points without the failure, running as he was ahead of his team-mate.
The first corner saw Kyvat run wide and when he returned to the track he forced team-mate Sainz into a spin that saw the Spaniard drop to the rear of the field.
“Soon after the start, Daniil locked the front-left tyre under braking,” said Tost. “Therefore, he had to go a little bit wider and when he rejoined the track he caused some troubles for Carlos, who spun and went back to last because of this.
“Daniil continued the race in twelfth and defended this position until he had to stop the car because of a complete electronic shutdown – we don’t know the exact reason for this yet. It’s a shame because Daniil could have scored good points.”
After his first lap spin, Sainz recovered to finish eighth on Sunday, with Tost praising the Spaniard for his drive back through the field. He made a late race pass on Fernando Alonso and was closing on Kevin Magnussen when the chequered flag fell.
“Carlos did a very good comeback, as he was able to overtake some rivals,” said Tost. “The race was then red-flagged, which meant we could put on the Supersoft tyres. When the race restarted, he overtook Alonso and he was catching Magnussen, finishing P8 in the end.
“The car performance in the race was quite good and, without starting from the back or if we hadn’t had the problem at the start, I think Carlos could’ve finished in P7.”
Tost admitted that the past two races were expected to be tough for Toro Rosso but to score some points in Azerbaijan was a nice bonus, even though they fell down to sixth place in the championship standings due to Williams Martini Racing scoring a podium finish ahead of them.
“We knew from the beginning that both Canada and Azerbaijan are race tracks that are not in our favour but, nevertheless, we scored some points,” said Tost. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship to Williams.
“Now we have to fight back but I’m positive that, earlier or later, we will be back in that position. We now go to Austria, where we hope to be prepared as well as possible in order to finish with both cars in the points.”
