Friday: Daniil Kvyat makes his first laps on the track with Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat completed his first laps with the Toro Rosso team in Austin during Free Practice 1 today. The Russian set the 17th fastest time in a session disrupted by fog and the circuit's helicopter issues but is pleased to further his experience in Formula 1. Jean-Eric Vergne, who gave up his seat during FP1 after losing the draw, did not extract the full potential of his car but remains confident for the qualifying. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, also believes there is a lot of work to do tonight to find the right settings for tomorrow.
Daniil Kvyat – 17th (Free Practice 1):
« I loved every moment spent on the track even though the fog shortened the session just like the red flag. We didn’t complete the desired program, but I was able to do 20 additional laps which is important for me and we were able to take aero measurements of the car. I’ve never driven here before and found the track very interesting. It was great to be able to drive and try to find the limit of the car and the braking. I won’t be driving again this weekend but will attend the engineers’ debriefings which will be an equally interesting experience. »
Daniel Ricciardo – 16th and 14th:
« Today, we did not find the performances we wanted. We were too far from the top 10. I am not satisfied with the car’s balance, both this morning and this afternoon. We still have a lot of work to do tonight to understand how to improve the car and I hope we can bring good solutions tomorrow. I feel that the tires are a bit too hard for the conditions we had today. They took a lot of time to heat up. »
Jean-Eric Vergne – 17th (Free Practice 2):
Of course, I have no problem with Daniil driving my car this morning in Free Practice 1 since it allows the whole team to prepare for next year, but it made my life a little bit more difficult today by only driving during one session. We struggled on track and I am not satisfied with the setup we found. The long runs we did at least revealed a balance issue with the car. So we have a lot of work left tonight for qualifying. But I am confident. We are going to succeed in improving and being competitive tomorrow.
