Daniil Kvyat described his relief at taking the best finish of his career so far after his team mate let him by for fourth place at Monaco.
Kvyat had let Daniel Ricciardo by into fourth a few laps earlier as his team mate had switched to the softer tyres in an attempt to make a pass for a podium position. When he wasn’t able to the team told him to let Kvyat back through.
“It was a strategy gamble they tried with him,” Kvyat confirmed to reporters after the race. “He was meant to overtake the people in front, the Mercedes and Ferrari, but it didn’t happen.”
“So then we stick to the fair plan because they tried the strategy with him, not with me.”
Kvyat’s best finish until today had been a string of ninth place finishes. “It was a very positive day,” he said. “It was my highest, by far, career finish in F1.”
“So to be fair massive relief. Next step, you know where it is. I’m feeling actually quite happy at the moment.”
Kvyat had come under some criticism from Red Bull motorsport director Helmut Marko in the run-up to the race, who suggested his results weren’t good enough. “The bits were there for a good race but we were missing out a little bit first races,” said Kvyat.
“This race seemed to come in our favour a little bit more, this track more adapted to us. But hopefully now we can carry on this momentum on the next races. So all in all it was a very positive weekend.”
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt)
24th May 2015, 16:10
Very happy for him – with Sainz and Verstappen impressing, he needs a result like this to prevent him from becoming the forgotten driver in the Red Bull stable.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th May 2015, 16:49
Had a very good weekend here, yeah.
Bigasshammm
24th May 2015, 16:18
“Multi 21 Seb, multi 21.” Where was this fairness when Mark Webber was there?
David-A (@david-a)
24th May 2015, 16:32
You’re right, it wasn’t fair to order a champ not to race when they were clearly 1-2.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
24th May 2015, 16:32
Isn’t Milti21 confirmation he effectively was…
Mr win or lose
24th May 2015, 18:03
LOL!
Patrick (@paeschli)
24th May 2015, 20:35
phahahahaha :D
People always forget that, it’s so funny!
Tristan (@skipgamer)
24th May 2015, 16:22
Lucky really, we were robbed of seeing a good fight between them. Pretty sure if told he’d have to give the place back before hand Ricciardo would have rather battled him for the position. 7-8 laps wasn’t it? And RIC’s pace comparatively was crazy fast.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
24th May 2015, 17:26
Most likely it’d be the same as Vettel v Hamilton. I.e. lots of tension but no change in position.
kpcart
24th May 2015, 16:22
beautiful piece of sportsmanship by Redbull, i am not sure if it would have worked with Vettel and Webber, but Kvyat was a real sport in letting Ricciardo pass to attack Hamilton and Ricciardo was as sportsman in giving the position back to Kvyat when he couldnt pass Hamilton.
Rigi (@rigi)
24th May 2015, 16:37
+1 gotta agree there, both of them were really sporty. they both respect each other and have a good relationship as team mates from what i’ve seen.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th May 2015, 18:38
Yes, well played by the drivers. And good thinking by the team, if they were trying to get Ricciardo 5 or 10 seconds up the road – in case he’d got a time penalty for his bump with Raikkonen.
I doubt they could have explained all that to Kvyat while he was racing round Monaco, so good on him for accepting it, and Ricciardo for giving it back.
@HoHum (@hohum)
24th May 2015, 23:09
Agree, and of course now that the drivers can trust each other to honour tactical agreements they can work together to maximise points for the team.
evered7 (@evered7)
24th May 2015, 17:07
Glad for Kvyat. Shined in the race after the pitstop. Didn’t like the call to get Ricciardo ahead but props to them for bringing him back once they knew 3rd was a goner.
Not sure if the FIA would like such games though.
Sergey Martyn
24th May 2015, 17:14
Huge respect for them both but radio communication between RB stabling and Kvyat was kinda strange: “You have Daniel behind you. Don’t fight him. You’re on different strategies” ” just a handful of laps before the end of the race after SC.
Anyway I’m very pleased with the result and sportsmanship between Dan and Dani.
sumedh
24th May 2015, 17:23
Incredible amount of trust between the drivers and the team. Really allows the team to try out different strategies that could fetch them that one extra point here and there..
I doubt if this would have been possible in the days of Vettel and Webber.
Somehow, both Vettel and Red Bull are better off having left each other. I just read that Vettel and Webber also travelled together from Australia to Dubai and are back on cordial terms. Even Hamilton showed incredible maturity in handling a disappointment.
Everyone seems to be growing up. Except for a certain Spaniard who seems hung up on his old team.
kpcart
24th May 2015, 18:28
hopefully Helmutt Marko can now go and get lost and leave this sport which he has never made an impression on.
pastaman (@)
26th May 2015, 3:50
8 WCs, yeah I’m not impressed…
BaKano (@bakano)
24th May 2015, 19:08
Great gamble taken by the team and great attitude by both drivers, Kvyat for complying quickly with the request and then Ricciardo for giving the place back, that he most likely never had if he needed to fight for it.
In my opinion, Ricciardo was lucky not to get penalized by the collision with Raikonnen (considering Alonso was but I only saw a replay for the 2 incidents, so a not well formed opinion).