Daniil Kvyat said there was an element “missing” to Scuderia Toro Rosso‘s performance in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Russian did not partake in a second and final run in Qualifying 2 leaving him fifteenth on the grid, three spots and three-tenths of a second behind team-mate Alexander Albon.
Toro Rosso later revealed that an “operational issue” prevented Kvyat from setting another fast lap in Qualifying 2.
Kvyat expressed his frustration in being unable to show Toro Rosso’s promise, believing that he had the pace to make the top 10 shootout, and said that something was “missing” from the car.
“It wasn’t the best Qualifying for us today,” said Kvyat.
“We didn’t do the final run in Qualifying 2 so it’s hard to judge how we would have gone, but I think we had a chance for Qualifying 3.
“Something was missing in the car, so we will review what that was.
“We had a clear idea of what we wanted to do in the last run of Qualifying 2, so it’s just unfortunate we didn’t get the chance to do it.”
Kvyat hopes for a repeat of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks’ ago, where Toro Rosso transformed an average qualifying performance into points through the returning Kvyat.
The Russian ceded that Toro Rosso has to “fight harder” in the race to move forward in a very tight midfield battle, but maintained a level of optimism.
“Now we turn our focus to the race tomorrow,” he added.
“We’ll have to fight harder but I think we will be competitive.”
