Another engine breakdown and start from last place: why the qualification of the Russian Grand Prix was a failure for Quata

Saturday at the Russian Grand Prix promised to be a difficult test for riders and fans. It was expected that for the first time the Russian stage of Formula 1 will become rainy at least during the qualification. The Ministry of Emergency Situations even sent a warning to the residents and guests of Sochi about an approaching storm and impending tornadoes.

Heavy, but short tropical rain did rain across Adler on Saturday morning, but after half an hour the streets of the city and the highway were dry, as if there was no rain. This happened long before the third free practice, in which pilots had the last chance to tune their cars before qualification.

One of the first to leave was Daniel Kvyat. The day before, he had only one training session due to problems with the new engine from Honda, which showed the 12th result among all pilots. The driver of the Toro Rosso team, which can be renamed from next season, hoped to show fast seconds on Saturday. In his first lap in racing mode, he showed the ninth time when the main favorites had already appeared on the track.

But right after this, Kvyat again stood in the middle of the track, shouting to the radio team that he had problems with the same engine, because of which he had already been sent to the last row of the starting grid. A few minutes later the car was evacuated, and the pilot himself, on whose face was read the extreme discontent, disappeared into the pits.

FP1 + FP3 = deja-vu for Dany Kvyat at his home race 😔 # RussianGP 🇷🇺 # F1pic.twitter.com / VF5SRr7cH6

After completing the practice, information was received that it would be necessary to change the engine again, which would take a lot of time. Quat had to miss the qualification and say goodbye to the Russian fans until Sunday, when he will start the race either from last place, or even from the pit lane, if any problems prevent him from taking a place on the starting line.

“We needed to replace the power plant on the car, so as not to risk it. This replacement will take some time. And we did not have the opportunity to make this replacement between the end of the training session and the start of the qualification. It is unfortunate that this happened, ”the head of his team, Franz Toast, commented on this offensive event for Kvyat.

Confirmation from Toro Rosso that Dany Kvyat won't play any part in qualifying today

His car is still being worked on in the garage 👨‍🔧 # RussianGP 🇷🇺 # F1pic.twitter.com / qJ02auhdUb

The best in free practice was Charles Leclair on a Ferrari, which was three tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. During the training, the World Cup leader complained to the team that it was impossible to keep up with Leclair. The rider from Monaco has a real chance to become the first Ferrari driver since Michael Schumacher, who would have won four pole positions in a row.

The qualification of the Russian Grand Prix began dramatically. In the middle of the first segment, Alexander Albon on the Red Bull flew off the track and hit the barrier at the 13th turn. The pilot was not injured, but not only he was not able to fix the test time, but he was not allowed to do this because of the stop of the race.

RED FLAG🚩

Alex Albon goes off at Turn 13 and into the wall

His session is over - and the clock is stopped at 6:38 # RussianGP 🇷🇺 # F1pic.twitter.com / YNzGn90V9V

Among the victims was Sebastian Vettel - for six minutes after the restart he had to drive a fast lap and try not to get stuck in traffic. The German pilot coped with this task and advanced to the next round.

But in the finals, the fight for the pole position with Lecler was no longer fought by him, but by Hamilton. As a result, the victory was celebrated by a Ferrari pilot, having already won four tenths of a second against the current world champion. Vettel took third place, followed by Max Verstappen, but he will have to move five positions at the start of the race. Thanks to this, Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes got to the second row of the grill. Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg formed the third row, which hardly anyone would have expected before the start of the qualification.

After failure in free races and missed qualifications Quat remained optimistic about the Sunday race. According to him, the chances of success remain, even if you start from last place on a non-rolled engine.

“There are always chances. We must continue to fight, tomorrow will be the most important moment of the weekend. Yes, we start last, there were very few laps on this route. But we will try our best to try to break through. We also had a difficult weekend, but we could fix it by Sunday. I would not be looking for a conspiracy theory in this situation. Such problems happen in our sport. The last couple of races, they were quite often. But it happens. You just need to fix it, and everything will be fine. If there were no problems with the engine, participating in the qualification would still make sense to drive more racing laps, ”said Kvyat.