Daniil Kvyat was pleased to recover from 15th to seventh at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but the Red Bull driver says he needs to improve his qualifying form after experiencing another “disaster” in Sakhir.
Having already been out of position in Melbourne two weeks ago, Kvyat once again featured amongst the early qualifying casualties as he dropped out of Q2 in 15th.
The Russian’s misery was further compounded by the fact that team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was a strong fifth on the grid and ‘best of the rest’ behind the Mercedes and Ferraris.
“We need to work on our qualifying and not repeat the disaster of [last Saturday], for China I will sit down with my side of the garage and analyse qualifying to improve that,” Kvyat said.
The former GP3 Series champion then drove a fighting recovery race under the floodlights, with Red Bull going for a clever strategy that allowed Kvyat to pick his way through the field en route to clinching his first points of the season.
“It was quite difficult in the beginning but I would say the race went very well considering where we started from. We had good pace and a good result, which I am very happy with.
“The strategy worked well and the team managed to avoid traffic on the track, when we saw an opportunity we went for it and it made the race good fun. We found a nice rhythm during the race. It was also good to see we were challenging the front runners, at the right tracks I think this will be interesting.”
Despite his strong performance, Kvyat still finished behind Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, who could covet his drive at Red Bull should the Russian fail to swing the momentum more decisively.
RACE REPORT: Rosberg beats Raikkonen to win in Bahrain
AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix
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