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Kvyat 'quite excited' by Toro Rosso potential

Daniil Kvyat has been left "quite excited" by Toro Rosso's potential despite a disappointing qualifying session ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Russian driver was taking part in his first qualifying since being demoted from Red Bull, but dropped out in Q2 as new team-mate Carlos Sainz progressed to Q3. Despite being set to start from 13th place, Kvyat says the signs are positive for the future once he gets more comfortable with the car.

"The glass is half full because the pace is there and the car is there but Toro Rosso and I deserve some time together to learn," Kvyat said. "Timed session like today can be costly but generally the pieces are there because generally the pace is there expect for a couple of tenths. Maybe having a second set of tyres that is where the couple of tenths would have come.

"I was already quite comfortable to be honest. If we try to extract this kind of feeling every session I think we have a good pace and I think the car has quite a good potential. The tracks that are best for us are yet to come so it is all looking quite good so I am quite excited."

Kvyat expects to be able to complete a day of testing in Barcelona next week which he believes will be enough to fully acclimatise to the car.

Asked if Max Verstappen has an easier task stepping up to Red Bull than he does returning to Toro Rosso, Kvyat replied: "It is not easy to say but of course the Red Bull car I was familiar with and comfortable to drive.

"Toro Rosso is a car with a huge potential but has a few sharp edges and not that easy to get on top of on day one and day two so with the test after this weekend I will hopefully able to do many laps and I think I can push towards a good place.

"Of course I had to change my driving style quite a lot which is not easy to do for a driver because for a year and a half I was using one side and now I need a different philosophy for the different car. Like I said, one test day and I should be there."

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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.