Daniil Kvyat (P12): 6.5/10
Daniil Kvyat struggled to find pace in Suzuka, and was probably surprised to be only a tenth faster than guest driver Naoki Yamamoto in first practice. Once Pierre Gasly reclaimed his car, the Frenchman was immediately faster in FP2 and then made it through to the final round of qualifying, while Kvyat found himself eliminated at the end of Q2 and forced to start the race from 14th place. He also lost out on the first lap and dropped three places on the first lap, but then made a long first stint on soft tyres work surprisingly well. He was up to eighth place with some good on-track scraps along the way by the time he switched to mediums, after which he was only able to make moderate gains in the remainder of the race to finish in an unremarkable 12th. Kvyat insisted that the pace of the STR14 was good, but admitted that he needed to focus on improving his qualifying performance in the remaining four races of the season.
