Scuderia Toro Rosso - day one test results

Toro Rosso and rookie driver Daniil Kvyat have a productive day of testing in Bahrain.

Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit - Sakhir, 5.412 kms

Driver: Daniil Kvyat

Car: STR9 chassis number 01

Laps: 67

Best time: 1:40.452

Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso

Photo by: XPB Images

After a brief pause for breath on Monday following the excitement of the Bahrain Grand Prix, all the teams were back in action today testing at the very same Sakhir circuit. It’s part of the return to limited in-season testing, after a ban that lasted a couple of years. Not much change to the weather or track conditions, apart from the fact that track time runs from 09h00 to 17h30 and therefore in a much hotter part of the day than was the case over the race weekend. That can have an effect on car balance, but nothing too significant.

In the Toro Rosso camp, Daniil Kvyat was on driving duty today, completing a satisfactory number of laps, as the team focussed on chassis work over long runs. The main aims were to move forward on the development of the car in race trim as well as give Daniil valuable extra mileage under race conditions, in addition to carrying out tyre work. Tomorrow, the last day of this two day session, the STR9 will be in the hands of Jean-Eric Vergne.

Daniil Kvyat:

“Even if you can’t see it from looking at the timing screen, this was a productive day during which we learned a lot. It was very useful for me, giving me a lot of laps away from the race weekend environment. We also learned something about why our pace was not as strong as we had expected in Sunday’s race. I think this in-season testing is a very useful thing, not just for the teams, but also for guys like me who have to catch up in terms of experience.”