Daniil Kvyat secured his best result for Scuderia Toro Rosso on Sunday, with the Russian capping off a strong weekend with a seventh-place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Before the weekend at the Circuit de Monaco, Kvyat’s best result for the Faenza-based outfit was a multitude of ninth place results, but after starting inside the top seven thanks to a solid qualifying performance on Saturday, hopes were high for him to score big points on Sunday.
He lost two places at the start, something he felt was out of his hands, but the gamble to not pit under the early safety car period paid off as he followed McLaren F1 Team’s Carlos Sainz Jr. home in seventh, and just ahead of team-mate Alexander Albon.
“We had a very strong Qualifying yesterday and capped it off with a strong race today, so it’s a nice feeling,” said Kvyat. “I was a sitting duck at the start of the race: [Pierre] Gasly had a clean braking move on the outside, while I was on the inside line and I couldn’t change it – someone must have taken it easy into the corner and it caused a chain reaction.
“However, I’m very happy because I think it was a really strong race for us. We can be satisfied with the amount of points we brought home today and with how we managed the race – the teamwork was fantastic, the support I got from everyone was great!”
Kvyat revealed that a lot of work was being done from his point of view in order to convert good qualifying results and starting positions into points after failing to maximise his potential in either the Azerbaijan or Spanish Grand Prix where he started well inside the top ten.
“P7 is a great result in Monaco,” said the Russian. “We have been working hard over the past few weeks to see where we need to improve and what I need to go faster, and we found it. Now we just need to find it every weekend, so we can continue to score a good amount of points.
“The car is performing well so we have to keep developing it in the same direction.”
