Kvyat hails “best qualifying lap of the year” with sixth for Sakhir F1 GP

Daniil Kvyat says his lap which earned him sixth on the grid for the Sakhir F1 Grand Prix is his “best qualifying lap of the year”.

The Russian edged out Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.051s in qualifying as the AlphaTauri driver enjoyed his best qualifying result of the campaign.

It’s only the third time Kvyat has reached Q3, while teammate Pierre Gasly has reached the pole position shoot-out on ten occasions in 2020.

With Kvyat likely to be replaced by Formula 2 star Yuki Tsunoda in 2021, it might be one of his final qualifying sessions in F1.

Reflecting on qualifying, Kvyat said: “I enjoyed the lap today. A good lap in Q3 especially, consistent, strong. Happy. I think it’s the best qualifying lap of the year for me. Very tidy, very good.

“It’s so easy to make one small mistake, break the rhythm then you maybe lose a lot on the straight if you have a bad exit so it was about driving to what the car has and the grip, you tried to track the track conditions at the same time and not go over it, but at the same time take a bit of risk as you need be faster than the others.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Kvyat doubts overtaking will be easy but expects there to be a long train of cars due to the short nature of Sakhir’s ‘outer circuit’.

“I think we will see a big train of cars tomorrow, very close but like he [Perez] said it will be difficult to overtake,” Kvyat added. “It’s going to be tight and narrow, and everyone will be trying hard. It will be a very interesting race tomorrow, very long.”