F1's bright young star Daniil Kvyat lights up Sochi on home debut

Daniil Kvyat picked the perfect moment to record his best qualifying performance of the season and with it, the best ever qualifying performance by a Russian.

Kvyat's fifth fastest time on the grid for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix eclipses the brace of sixth places in qualifying by Vitaly Petrov in 2011 and lifted Toro Rosso above sister squad Red Bull that he will be joining next season.

The 16th qualifying session of the 20-year-old's brief career brought joy to the sizeable home crowd in the  Sochi grandstands and sets the driver from the Urals up for an improvement on his current best race result of ninth.

"It feels great securing P5 in today's qualifying here in my home country," he said afterwards. "It was already looking promising yesterday, so I'm happy we could put it all together and achieve my best ever qualifying result today. The car felt good and everything worked out well, so well done to the team. I will do my best in tomorrow's race and I will definitely aim to finish the race at least in fifth position."

Kvyat will line up two places ahead of his 2015 team mate Daniel Ricciardo and five ahead of Jean Eric Vergne in the other Toro Rosso. The result means he is the top Renault driver on the grid for the first time in his career.

Kvyat could do with a strong race result tomorrow as he trails Vergne in the Drivers' Standings by 39 points to 8. Kvyat scored on his debut and has had four further minor points placings. But he has shown enough to earn many admirers in the F1 paddock and a move to the Red Bull team for next season.

The first F1 World Championship-qualifying Russian GP takes place on the 100th anniversary of the most recent Russian GP. The race was first run in St.Petersberg in 1913 and again in 1914, both events being won by Benz cars, the forerunners of Mercedes Benz as it is today.