Kvyat rues mistake for missing out on top 10
Toro Rosso put in a strong qualifying performance for the Hungarian Grand Prix with Jean-Eric Vergne posting the 8th best time. Daniil Kvyat looked set to do a similar feat but a spin on his ultimate flying lap in Q2 meant he will start from 11th.
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-01, 8th: "It was a good qualifying session. The team has done a great job overnight to give me a car today that I felt much better with than yesterday, so well done to everybody and thanks for the great effort. It's really encouraging for tomorrow, we just have to keep our head down and stay focussed. I will give it my hundred percent and aim to finish the race as high as possible and score some good points."
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-04, 11th: “It could have been an easy Q3 for me today, but unfortunately I locked the rear and I spun. I’m frustrated with myself for this mistake, but I’m confident I will learn from this. I will put this behind me now and focus on tomorrow. It’s not easy to overtake on this track, but we will do our best from P11, which is not such a bad position to start from.”
Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: “That was an exciting Qualifying session. Similar to last weekend, we’ve made a step forward from Friday to Saturday’s Qualifying. We had the pace for both cars to get into Q3 in dry conditions, which is encouraging. Unfortunately Daniil made a mistake and had a little spin, which was a real shame because he has worked hard all weekend and would have deserved to be in Q3. JEV did a good job in Q3 again in tricky conditions and we are pleased with his lap. Starting from P8 he should be in a good position to have a strong race tomorrow. All in all, we are pleased with the work the drivers and also the engineers have done to improve the car.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “The conditions made the session incredibly intense. Fuel consumption changes as the track dries or gets wet, so it kept us on our toes! JEV did a great job while Daniil was unlucky to spin on his fastest lap, which would have been good enough to put another car into the top ten. Power unit wise we had no issues and look forward to convert this into a strong performance tomorrow.”
