KVYAT, A RESULT THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKELY TO SAVE HIS F1 FUTURE

A result that doesn’t look likely to save his F1 future and benefitted from his (quicker-looking) team-mate retiring with an engine issue, but Kvyat showed some proper fight on that late restart and thrilled with a round-the-outside pass on Leclerc, though a fourth career podium was just out of reach.

His qualifying performances have been out of whack for a while now, but in races he honestly could do a job for an F1 team for years and years yet. Unfortunately, there’s quite a few more than 20 drivers who that can be said about.

Daniil Kvyat credited “brave racing” as the reason for his strong fourth-place finish at the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna GP.

While teammate Pierre Gasly retired prematurely due to a suspected Honda-related issue, Kvyat recovered from eighth to finish a season-best of fourth.

The Russian was in seventh after the late Safety Car period caused by Max Verstappen’s rear tyre failure, but made impressive overtakes on Alexander Albon and Charles Leclerc.

Kvyat chased Daniel Ricciardo for third but couldn’t get close enough to make a move for the final spot on the rostrum.

“It was good race, it was a good, strong result,” Kvyat said. “Of course, now I’m talking and thinking more about the podium, because it was so close.

“[It was] really, really difficult on the restart, but I managed to do some good moves. Daniel just warmed up his tyres. It was very hard, very close until the end, but I had to do some brave racing today. I had some fun today.”

When asked about his ballsy move on the outside of Leclerc, Kvyat said: “I said, ‘I go for it now,’ after the restart.I felt the confidence, I like the old school tracks. Maybe I’m just an old school guy in the wrong time!”

AlphaTauri sits just 14 points behind Ferrari in the constructors’ championship and is expected to bring some new parts to the next race in Turkey.

Kvyat says understanding its car better has been key to its upturn in form in recent races.

“There are some things that we understand – I mean, my side of the garage understands now – I wish we understood them a bit more in the beginning, how to make the car work a bit better, but we really got there, since Spa it was a good step.

“Pierre has been very fast this year. But since Spa, if you look at it, we were really close and very competitive. And it was a good race today. It’s very important for me to get this weight out, like a very strong result, very strong race, and I’m happy.

“We recovered only a couple of points today. Better than nothing. Of course, I think it’s going to be a very close battle until the end. It seems like our pace is similar. Sometimes in qualifying they look impressive, but in the race we catch up. We’ll try to do our best to beat them in the championship.

“Of course that’s a target, but we know it’s not easy, and we cannot think about it too much. We just need to focus on our job.”

KVYAT, A RESULT THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKELY TO SAVE HIS F1 FUTURE KVYAT, A RESULT THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKELY TO SAVE HIS F1 FUTURE

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