Qualifying - Abu Dhabi GP report: Toro Rosso Ferrari

Daniil Kvyat

“After all the problems we’ve been struggling with this weekend, today’s result is actually the maximum we could achieve, at least from my side – I don’t think I could’ve done a better lap to be honest. We’ve had very little track time during the practice sessions, so it was difficult to go into qualifying without many laps under my belt… I’m happy with the recovery and we still have a chance to fight tomorrow, when I will try and do a clean race and see where we end up. We’re also going blind into the race, as we didn’t complete any long runs, but we will keep fighting until the end, that’s for sure!”

Carlos Sainz

“Honestly, it’s being a very tough last two days here in Abu Dhabi, which is a bit painful as I really wanted to finish the season with a clean weekend and enjoy myself. The team has struggled to solve the problem regarding the rear of the car and, because of this, we haven’t had much track time unfortunately. We’re working hard and every time we do a change on the car it seems to be positive – the team has done a great job since yesterday. Obviously, this has conditioned our set-up and we’ve not had much time to develop it or get used to the track – something which is not ideal when you’re preparing for a race. Tomorrow we are starting from very back on the grid but let’s see what we can do - I will definitely try and enjoy it, hope for no reliability concerns and follow a good strategy. Let’s go for it!”

Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance)

“Following the issue we suffered yesterday, the race team and factory staff have worked hard overnight to find a solution, which has allowed us to conduct some running in FP3 and follow this up with a full Q1 programme. Clearly, the lack of running has limited the opportunities for the drivers to get comfortable with the car and evolve the set-up during this event. This has resulted in both cars not getting through to Q2. It is disappointing, as we know that under normal circumstances the team, drivers and car are capable of much more. Qualifying itself was straight forward operationally, but with the lack of performance running conducted by both drivers and as a result of the delta to our immediate competitors being greater than normal, we elected to make three runs. This was meant to provide both drivers with the maximum opportunity with a package which has not been optimised so far this event. Regardless of the lack of running, both drivers approached qualifying fully committed and extracted as much performance as possible from their cars. We now shift our focus to the race and will try to take any opportunity which comes our way to improve our race position… we have nothing to lose!”