Scuderia Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost had another day to remember in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat started the race in twelfth and thirteenth and it was the Thai driver who had come home scoring the team’s point from Budapest with a tenth place finish.
However, Kvyat’s tyres had hit the cliff with around fifteen laps of the race remaining and a loss of time dropped him down to fifteenth.
The Austrian boss though was pleased to see such a huge crowd turn up for an entertaining Grand Prix.
“Today we had another very exciting Formula 1 race in front of a big crowd with so many fans who came to Budapest, which shows how much interest the fans have for Formula 1,” Tost added.
“We didn’t show very good pace from the beginning of the weekend onwards, so we started the race from P12 and P13. However, during the race our performance was quite good, but we probably called Daniil in for the pit stop a bit too early and, as a consequence, in the final few laps he suffered with his tyres like a few other drivers around him.
“Despite this, he still drove a very good race. As for Alex, we called him in seven laps later than Daniil and this helped him to attack at the end of the race, which allowed him to overtake Perez and score a point.”
A nervy point in the race saw both Toro Rosso drivers battling it out on track for twelfth on lap nineteen. The pair were side by side going into Turn Four with Albon having to go off onto the run-off area and conceding the position to his Russian team-mate.
Tost had no regrets sticking to his decision in allowing his drivers race other, as he wanted to see his team put on a show for the fans at the venue and on the television.
“It was fantastic to see how Daniil and Alex raced each other – we didn’t want to give any order from the pit wall and we decided to let them race – this is what people want to see from the grandstands and on TV,” Tost said positively.
“They fought each other fairly and it was good racing. I think this was the maximum result we could achieve today, so we have to work very hard to close the gap to our direct competitors and I think we will achieve this in the second half of the season.
“Thanks to the whole team, the complete working group, for the big effort they put in the first half of the year. Now we will have two weeks of holidays to come back with fully charged batteries for the rest of the season.”
Albon’s Hungarian score means Toro Rosso have furthered their gap over Renault F1 Team in the Constructors’ Championship to four points, remaining in fifth position as Formula 1 heads into the summer break.