Daniil Kvyat says he was pleased to drive the new 2016 Red Bull RB12 for the first time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Russian set a fastest lap time of 1:26.497 to finish ninth fastest, 3.3 seconds behind Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, who finished fastest. He managed to get 74 laps on the board.
After the session, Kvyat positively described his day: “It was great to get back behind the wheel today and very exciting to finally drive the RB12 after what felt like a long winter break. I think we’ve made a step in the right direction so far. Everything feels like it’s in the right place, the car seems quite well balanced and the first feeling is very positive.
“Obviously, we are looking for a bit more mileage than today, which I think is reachable, so we’ll try to make a really good day of it tomorrow.”
Guillaume Rocquelin, the team’s Head of Race Engineering, also echoed these thoughts despite some hiccups: “A slightly frustrating end to today’s work, as the problem we encountered yesterday manifested itself again. We did some work overnight to cure the issue and the bulk of today’s running went smoothly. However, in the afternoon we noticed the problem again, so decided to finish a bit early.
“I don’t think it will put a big dent in our progress but it’s something we’ll have to look into before next week’s final test. Prior to the end of running, Dany had a good first day. He was comfortable from the off and he was making the same noises as Daniel [Ricciardo] in terms of how the car generally feels and behaves, which is good.
“In the morning we focused on aero work and it was more of the same in the afternoon – long runs, medium tyre, just getting Dany bedded in and working through our run plan. We’ll keep pushing tomorrow and hopefully put a few more miles on before we finish for this week.”
Kvyat will continue in the car tomorrow for the final day of the first test.
