Kvyat: I need break more than anyone else

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Daniil Kvyat says he needs the summer break more than anyone else in F1 at the moment after a difficult 2016 so far.

The young Russian secured a podium at the Chinese Grand Prix but was dropped to Toro Rosso after causing two accidents on the first lap in his home race in Sochi. Since then, Kvyat has struggled for form and been beaten by new team-mate Carlos Sainz, and cut a dejected figure after dropping out of qualifying in Q1 at Hockenheim.

While Kvyat had a strong race to enter the break in a more positive frame of mind, he says he needs the time away from the sport.

"Yeah, I really need it I think, me more than anyone else I think," Kvyat said. "I’ve been straining myself, asking too much of myself, asking things that were not possible in this car and these circumstances, especially when I just came to the team… Monaco, Baku worked well, I think I jumped ahead of the car performance and everything, then I then felt that was possible the next races.

"It’s easy to strain yourself and that’s what I feel like I did. Now luckily I have a summer break and now I know what I did wrong, now I have the summer break and that’s a good thing."

And Kvyat admits he was "demotivated" following the seat swap with Max Verstappen, but is now looking forward to working hard before racing resumes in Belgium at the end of August.

Asked for his plans over the summer, Kvyat replied: "Just sleep!

"Just switch my phone off, that’s all I really want to do to be honest. Maybe do some karting days with my old team and stay in shape, have a few cold beers in this couple of days because I can.

"And then I want to train again, I was in very good physical shape this winter which I lost again when I got demotivated. Now I want to work with my trainer again and put myself back to the real good old Danny."

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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.