Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat has apologised after being involved in an incident with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for a second successive race in Russia.
The Russian collided with the Ferrari twice on the opening lap of the race at Turns 2 and 3, causing Vettel to hit the barrier and retire from the race. This brought out the virtual safety car and then the full safety car a lap later, and also caused teammate Daniel Ricciardo to suffer damage to his car as he was close to the incident.
This massively affected both of their performances, with Kvyat rebounding from the incident to finish the race in 15th place and cross the line outside of the points for the first time in 2016.
“There was a lot going on at the start and I didn’t expect to slow down as much,” Kvyat said.
“I locked the rear wheels and the car was a bit out of control which caused the contact with Sebastian.
“On Turn 3, I couldn’t see what was happening ahead, Sebastian seemed to slow down and unfortunately I didn’t have time to react and this caused the second contact.
“I’m sorry for Sebastian and also to the team as we gave away a lot of points today from both my side and Daniel’s. It doesn’t feel great, this is probably the messiest first lap of my career.”
