Daniil Kvyat is hoping to make up for the disappointment he suffered in his first race on home ground last year.
Kvyat, then with Toro Rosso, lined up fifth on the grid for the first Russian Grand Prix – his best qualifying performance at the time – but fell to 14th in the race.
“Qualifying was great,” said Kvyat, “but the race was just… how can I say this… well, it was crap.”
“We had problems with fuel consumption during the race and it was just a really disappointing day. I’m hoping we will be able to give the fans there something more to cheer about this year.”
The Sochi Autodrom is holding its second Formula One race this year. Kvyat said the track is challenging in places but lacks a “stand-out” corner.
“I would describe it as a classic modern-style track,” he said. “But what’s really important is that there is quite a lot of room for overtaking, which usually makes for good racing.”
“It does have some quite interesting, quite unusual sections. There are some challenging braking areas, in turn 13 for example. Also turn four is quite tough. I would characterise it as a very technical circuit.”
“It probably doesn’t really have a stand-out, balls-out corner, it really does make you think a lot and it takes some time to work out the best way round it. Having said that, it’s my home race and I enjoy it a lot.”
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
2nd October 2015, 12:07
Kvyat had problems with fuel consumption because they had turned up the wick for qualifying, to give him a hollywood 3rd row start at his home race, to the severe detrement of his race pace. It wasn’t championship points they were after, it was Russian headlines, and I’m not entirely convinced Bernie didn’t have a hand in it.
GP2engine
3rd October 2015, 6:10
This explanation sounds a bit like an accusation like there is something awfully wrong with this kind of strategy.
Polo (@polo)
6th October 2015, 5:10
This sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory to me. Why would turning the wick up in qualifying mean that he would have to do extreme fuel-saving in the race? The fuel loads for qualifying and the race are completely separate. Besides, Vergne qualified 9th, but he had exactly the same problem with having to do extreme fuel-saving from very early on in the race (several other drivers struggled with fuel consumption at this race last year, such as Perez, who nearly ran out of fuel – Sochi is a very fuel-hungry circuit).
IMO Kvyat simply put in a very impressive performance in qualifying. In the race he had a very bad first lap (he had dropped behind Vergne by the end of the first lap) and couldn’t really fight back at any stage in the race since he had to fuel-save right from the start.
petebaldwin (@)
2nd October 2015, 12:10
Kvyat: “but the race was just… how can I say this… well, it was crap.”
Couldn’t agree more buddy. Couldn’t agree more….
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
2nd October 2015, 12:22
Another weekend of random hate because something is Russian. I hope Putin does not show up then people wouldn’t use it as a terrible excuse to down vote a normal average race below 6…
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
2nd October 2015, 12:47
That’s one terrible nose…..
mog
2nd October 2015, 12:53
Agreed. This year’s Torro Rosso is so much better by comparison. Looking at that i can almost see why the FIA took such a strict approach to nose rules this year…and that nose wasn’t the worst either in 2014.
Steve K
2nd October 2015, 14:33
Someone introduce this guy to Roget please.
David-A (@david-a)
2nd October 2015, 15:30
Same could be said for his Japanese GP weekend.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
3rd October 2015, 13:54
Not really an aero track so I don’t like his chances of it not being crap. Maybe he can have a spectacular PU failure to liven up his race. After all it’s done 2 races hasn’t it so it’s about due.
mfreire
3rd October 2015, 19:08
See, if Kvyat said anything negative about the Sochi track (which is a deadly dull, crap circuit with one standout corner: Turn 3)- he’d be sent to a gulag. Ah, the pleasures of mining Siberian salt…
Sergey Martyn
4th October 2015, 10:38
You forgot to mention vodka-drinking and balalaika-playing bears on KGB service, roaring “Hail Putin!” before dawn at paddock. Man, mentioning gulag these days is such a bad taste, it’s the same as to throw your undies to Obama’s face blaming US for racial segregation. You folks have so much turbulence in your dim wit brains.
BTW there is no salt in Siberia – only oil, gold, diamonds and mink.