Daniil Kvyat apologizes to Sebastian Vettel

In China, Daniil Kvyat made a daring move by slipping inside the first corner to pass Sebastian Vettel. Vettel was forced to swerve, which caused contact with his teammate, Kimi Räikkönen.

As much as this maneuver was justifiable by an overtaking opportunity, the collision in Russia is much less so. Indeed, the first contact is clearly linked to a judgment error by the Russian driver regarding his braking, as he acknowledges: « A lot happened at the start, and I didn’t expect to brake that much. I locked the rear wheels and lost a bit of control of the car, which caused the contact with Sebastian. »

But the contact at the first corner was only the beginning. Indeed, as early as turn 3, the two men made contact again. This time, the Red Bull driver cited lack of visibility to explain this new collision: « At turn 3, I couldn’t see what was happening ahead. It seems Sebastian slowed down. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to react and that caused the second contact. »

But, in addition to taking out the German driver, this contact also impacted Daniil Kvyat’s teammate. All that was left was to apologize to both men: « I’m sorry for Sebastian and for the team because we lost a lot of points, both me and Daniel. I’m to blame; it’s probably the worst first lap of my career. »

Daniel Ricciardo did not seek to further blame his teammate, even though he does not hide his disappointment: « It’s frustrating and really unfortunate that the race is more or less over after one lap, but I think these kinds of things happen in racing. After the start, I felt a big impact. I saw Seb coming towards me, and it seems he also got hit. We had a lot of damage and had to stop. »

Afterward, the strategy of switching to medium tires didn’t work, and the Australian driver could do no better than 11th, just outside the points.