Daniil Kvyat is pleased with the progress Red Bull has shown in Friday’s free practice for the Chinese Grand Prix despite suffering a brake failure towards the end of FP2.
After experiencing an indifferent start to its 2015 campaign, the Milton Keynes-team brought a few updates to its latest challenger in an effort to close the gap to the frontrunners.
Along with Renault’s improved driveability, these latest developments seem to have paid dividends on the leaderboard with Kvyat hoisting his RB11 to P7 and P6 respectively during Friday’s two sessions.
“We have been aiming to develop through this weekend,” said the 20-year-old Russian. “We brought some bits and pieces here, a little bit of a set-up evolution. I think all in all it’s quite positive and this you can see on the timesheets.
“It’s really early to look into the (lap times) because it’s only Friday. But still, the feeling is quite positive I would say.”
However, Kvyat’s running was cut short when his brakes started to overheat in the final third of FP2. The system eventually caught fire as the F1 sophomore was leaving the Red Bull garage to carry on a long-run simulation.
Forced to complete a whole lap at very low speed, Kvyat almost made it back safely to the pits only to veer off track at the final hairpin, taking out his front wing in the process.
Having struggled with overheating brakes in Malaysia, Red Bull had reverted to its 2014-spec Brembo brakes ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix in order to fix the issue.
Although his team was aware of a potential repeat and keeping a close watch on the situation, Kvyat did not expect his brakes to fail so abruptly.
“We did not really have any big warning. It just happened as I exited the box during the long run. Suddenly, something was wrong. I was trying to get back to the box but I could not manage it because in the hairpin I could not stop the car.
“Something was a bit wrong there in the brake system. We need to investigate exactly why. I don’t want to make any early conclusions.
“There was plenty of smoke coming. But we have to understand exactly what happened. That’s why I don’t want to make any comments… if it’s exactly brakes or something else. I just want to wait for the team’s conclusions.”
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