Tyres thwart Kvyat in Shanghai qualifying

Despite qualifying in sixth place for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing's Daniil Kvyat still felt that he could have done even better and been higher up the grid if not for headaches over his tyres this weekend.

"It was quite a good qualifying," said Kvyat, who added that it was always good to make it into Q3 and start the race in the top ten on the grid.

"Quite good laps," he added. "There was a small mistake in turn 12, maybe could have cost us P4.

"In Q3 we had a scrubbed set of options so it probably played some small role, but generally every time on the track the car felt quite good to drive.

"I don't know where a new set would have put us but they definitely have a bit more peak performance and gives you a few extra tenths.

"But we decided to take this gamble and it didn't pay off a 100 per cent so we had to make our last lap time on this scrubbed set."

His team mate Daniel Ricciardo by contrast managed to keep his set of new supersoft tyres for his final run of the day, and Kvyat admitted that this had made all the difference.

"It's okay, but obviously it's very tight and we see that four tenths put Daniel to P2 which is quite a big difference on the grid. But, it's still good for racing tomorrow."

Kvyat agreed with suggestions that higher than usual pressures might be on one of the main reasons why he's not been comfortable on the tyres throughout this weekend in Shanghai.

"I think it doesn't help for sure. Obviously they're trying to be careful - maybe extra careful, I don't know - but on the driving sensation it has quite a big influence.

"Obviously the tyres are quite strange to drive, but it's the same for everyone," he commented.