'Mixed' first day for Toro Rosso drivers in Austria

The Toro Rosso team was doing its best to look on the bright side on Friday, after a day of somewhat mixed fortunes on the track.

Daniil Kvyat described it as being a productive day as far as he was concerned. However, he lost time in the afternoon session with a brake fire.

"Unfortunately, as we got into the long-runs, we suffered some problems," explained the team's technical director James Key.

"Daniil had a braking issue of some sort at the rear, which has caused the rear brakes to get hot," he confirmed. "We are currently investigating exactly what this is.

"It's not something we've seen before, so we have to understand exactly what happened there and address it for tomorrow."

"We had some small issues here and there throughout the day," added Kvyat himself.

"They were not big enough to say that it affected our day too much," he insisted. "We now just need to keep working as we are and avoid any more issues."

Hamilton stays in charge in second practice

There were also problems for Kvyat's team mate Carlos Sainz. In the Spaniard's case, it was caused by a wild ride over the grass in the penultimate corner.

"Unfortunately one of a number of drivers who went beyond the limits of the track today," said Key.

"Just as he was returning to the track, he caught the floor on quite an aggressive kerb. This unfortunately damaged the floor and the front area around the chassis.

"This meant it was sadly game over for him. We therefore didn't get the race data that we wanted. In terms of tyres we got some information, but not everything.

"It's a situation we've been in before, so I think we can make up for that."

"It's been a tricky Friday here in Austria," admitted Sainz. "I'd say not only for us, but also for many other drivers out there.

"We need to learn from today.

"We know we are lacking a bit of pace, but not as much as the timing sheets show. I'm confident that for tomorrow we can get a bit closer to the top ten."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.