Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat have been praised for their driving during the first two practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix.
This was the first session since their change of drivers and Kvyat’s return in place of Max Verstappen, which gave them the opportunity to let their driving do the talking after a lengthy analysis of their decision.
The first session saw Sainz finish in eighth place with a lap time of 1m26.078s, while Daniil Kvyat got to grips with his first laps in the STR11 in 12th place with a lap time of 1m26.583s. In the second session, Sainz finished ahead of both Red Bull drivers, finishing fifth with a lap time of 1m25.131s. Kvyat finished in 15th place with an improved lap time of 1m26.375s.
“It has been a pretty good day for us,” said Phil Charles, the team’s chief race engineer. “Carlos worked through all his programme list and some more, so I’d like to thank him for his very good work today.
“We know Barcelona pretty well from all the laps we do in the winter, but for Carlos to complete his whole programme here today means we have collected a lot of useful information to optimise the car around the particular conditions of this weekend – most specifically, the way the track and tyres are interacting in these temperatures, as well as correcting balance for the wind.”
Despite finishing outside of the top ten in both sessions, the team are confident that Kvyat will improve as he finds a comfort zone with his new working environment.
“For Daniil, it has been really nice to restart our relationship with him and he is settling in nicely already, I would say the whole team is very happy to be working with him and he is already making us laugh in and around the debriefs.
“In terms of today, there is still a little work to do to get him happy in our car – matching balance to his driving style and getting the best from the tyres – but nothing that should be too tricky and so I am confident he will be ‘on it’ this weekend.”
