Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsOpinion

Button accuses Red Bull of 'short memories' over Kvyat

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Jenson Button has expressed his surprise at Red Bull's demotion of Daniil Kvyat following the Russian Grand Prix.

After twice hitting Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap in Sochi, Kvyat has been relegated to Toro Rosso with Max Verstappen replacing him at Red Bull with immediate effect. The decision was made on Wednesday and comes despite Kvyat having been on the podium at the previous race in China.

Button took to social media to express his surprise at the decision, with Kvyat only four races into his second season with Red Bull.

In a later tweet Button said that he respects Verstappen's talent but believes the 18-year-old does not need to be rushed through to a Red Bull seat.

The demotion of Kvyat is the first time Red Bull has dropped a driver back down to Toro Rosso having previously promoted them, with Kvyat spending one year with the team in 2014 before replacing Vettel.

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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.