Toro Rosso targets points with Vergne
Scuderia Toro Rosso enjoyed a decent qualifying session today with Kvyat setting the 11th best time and Vergne qualifying 13th. Daniil Kvyat however will take a 10-place penalty for an engine change and will have to start from the back of the grid.
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-03, 11th (to start from 21st due to engine change penalty): “P11 is a good Qualifying result in the end and I did all I could, considering that the car was still a bit tricky to drive and it was difficult to put a lap together. It’s a shame that I won’t be starting from P11, but from P21. On the positive side, we are not carrying this grid penalty over to Singapore, so I’m pleased about that. It’s hard to say what we can do tomorrow, because starting from the back is never easy. We will look at what we can do with the strategy and I will give it my all to fight through the field to arrive as high up as possible.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-01, 13th (to start from 12th): "I made a good lap in Q1 and again in Q2, but it was not enough to get into Q3. I know I have done the best I could and I just could not drive any quicker. So far this weekend I have been struggling a lot with the car. I think this has been the most difficult weekend since the beginning of the season in terms of car handling. Anyhow, we are still looking forward to tomorrow. I will give it my hundred percent and aim to finish the race as high as possible.”
James Key, Technical Director: "Overall it has been a tricky weekend so far here at Monza and we feared it wouldn’t be our strongest event with the nature of the track. But we made some good steps forward this morning from yesterday’s balance problems and I think perhaps we could have had one car go through to Q3 but in reality P11 and P13 was close to where we were this weekend. So good job on the engineering side to get a better car and well done to both drivers to make some improvements too today. Our top speed is good, but unfortunately Daniil has a grid penalty due to his ICE change, so we will look at the strategy and see what we can do. JEV moves forward one place of course and scoring points should be in his hands. We will do our best tomorrow to fight for some points.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “On the engine side, we pushed everything to the limit and extracted what we could. Daniil was very close to Ricciardo and did very well to qualify in 11th, mitigating the impact of the penalty he will carry tomorrow. It is a shame JEV could not get closer to make it to Q3 but we will see what happens in the race.”
