Kvyat and Toro Rosso show competitiveness in Brazil

Daniil Kvyat had a good Friday, finishing 3rd in FP1 and then 8th in FP2, demonstrating the competitiveness of his Toro Rosso on the Interlagos track.

The young Russian remains cautious, however, as his STR9 lost performance with the warmer afternoon temperatures: « Mixed feelings today. This morning, we seemed quite competitive, whereas this afternoon, our performance wasn’t as good. The track conditions changed a lot between the two sessions, making it difficult to optimally extract [performance] from the tires. »

Next to him for the FP1, Max Verstappen also stood out with the 6th fastest time, and the Dutchman enjoyed working with the team’s engineers from Faenza: « I am satisfied with my work and I really like working with this team. We are getting to know each other better and they understand more what I want from the car, my driving style, and the adjustments are becoming simpler. I think I had a good practice session and it’s nice to see that both our cars are competitive. »

Jean-Eric Vergne did not have as much success during FP2, managing no better than the 17th fastest time, victim of a problem after only two laps: « After only a few laps in this session, I suddenly suffered a power loss, a complete blackout from an electrical point of view, which we will have to investigate. Unfortunately, it was not possible to bring the car back to study it and see if we could fix it in time to go back out. »

But the French driver is not giving up: « Not running on Friday doesn’t help us set up the car properly, but it won’t stop me from having a good weekend. »