Daniil Kvyat back in the points with Toro Rosso

While at Monza, some media were already pushing Daniil Kvyat towards the exit, with a replacement by Pierre Gasly, the Russian showed that he hadn’t completely given up after being demoted to Toro Rosso. After his first Q3 since Baku, the young driver managed to score points for the first time since Silverstone.

His 7th position on the starting grid of a city circuit opened the doors to points wide for him, but he still had to escape the traps and walls of the city-state. He was able to emerge almost unscathed from his collision with Nico Hülkenberg’s Force India. However, he was unable to withstand the comeback of Sebastian Vettel but especially Sergio Perez: « I think I did my best today. I had a lot of fun and had some great battles! Unfortunately, after the first stint, things didn’t go as planned. We finished behind Perez and we didn’t have enough top speed to overtake him. »

The small Scuderia once again suffers from having only a 2015 Ferrari engine, which is no longer up to date, especially against the powerful Mercedes engine. But for the former Red Bull driver, the important thing was elsewhere. He was determined to show that he still had the inner fire to deserve his place in F1 next season: « I pushed until the last centimeter and left my soul on my track. It’s a shame but I am happy to finish in the points again. To be honest, the team did a good job after a difficult period. »

If Daniil Kvyat therefore had a smile, Carlos Sainz could only regret finishing 14th when he was 6th on the grid. Nevertheless, he was also a victim of the start crash: “I am angry after today’s race, especially after qualifying in 6th place yesterday. The race did not start well, and I had to avoid Max when the lights went out. In doing so, a Force India suddenly arrived and we collided. He took the most damage, but I got the second worst part, damaging the right side of my car.”

The stewards thus forced him to return to the pits to repair his damage while he was still able to attack: « However, we still had a decent pace after that and we were fighting for points but we were forced to stop early after receiving the orange and black flag. We rejoined the race behind too much traffic… »

Toro Rosso therefore must settle for just two points despite both its cars qualifying in the top 10. The only consolation will be having increased the gap over Haas.