Daniil Kvyat secured his best result of the season in Sunday’s Tuscan Grand Prix, with the Russian happy to get through the day without any mistakes in what he called a ‘difficult’ race at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda was able to avoid the first lap carnage that eliminated his team-mate, and then stayed out of trouble as much as he could as four other drivers took themselves out in a crash at the restart to secure seventh place, his second consecutive points finish and his fourth top ten finish of 2020.
Kvyat was pleased that the team were able to get through the twice-red flagged and three-times safety car affected race without any mistakes and score good points in the championship.
“It was a very difficult race today, both physically and mentally, so I think we can quite proudly say as a team we didn’t make any mistakes, which is great,” said Kvyat. “It was important for us to get some good points, so I’m happy with the result and I’m pleased with my driving.
“The team did a great job in difficult circumstances during the two red flags, and our strategy calls today were the right choices. There was a lot of mess behind us, but in front it was quite stable, so P7 was a very good result and we took some more points to close the gap in the championship.”
“I ended up in the middle and had nowhere to go” – Pierre Gasly
Team-mate Pierre Gasly was unfortunate to be caught up in a first lap tangle with Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean that also saw his former team-mate Max Verstappen end up in the gravel trap at turn three on lap one.
Gasly, the winner of the Italian Grand Prix just seven days prior, was brought back to reality with a bump, quite literally as he found himself entering an ever-decreasing space on the way to turn three, with Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Räikkönen edging across the Frenchman and Haas F1 Team’s Grosjean heading into the turn.
Unfortunately, contact with both Räikkönen and Grosjean put Gasly into the gravel trap with damage, meaning his race was over before it truly began.
“It’s a shame to finish the race just after the first corner,” said Gasly. “It was quite messy coming into Turn 1 with so many cars side by side. I saw some space between Kimi and Romain in Turn 2, I ended up in the middle and had nowhere to go, so we collided and that was pretty much it.
“I don’t think there is anyone to blame, but it’s a shame as I feel like we missed an opportunity for points today. We showed good pace all weekend and, even if we didn’t have a great qualifying, I was confident we could recover today.
“Obviously, I would have liked to have been out there with the guys and fight for points, but I think we need to take the positives here because the performance so far has been good, so we need to carry this to Sochi.”
