Kvyat: turn one move ‘paid off’ with podium

2016 Chinese Grand Prix

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After securing the second podium of his career in China, Daniil Kvyat says that his daring overtaking move on Sebastian Vettel at the first turn ‘paid off with a podium’.

Kvyat took advantage of misfortune striking a number of rivals to finish in third after being passed by a recovering Vettel in the final third of the race.

“I really enjoyed the race today,” says Kvyat. “Our pace was very strong and to get this result at this track where we didn’t expect to be so strong is really great.

“The car is performing really well, the chassis is easy to drive and with further upgrades coming to the power unit, we should be in an even stronger position.”

The Red Bull driver ruffled Vettel’s feathers with the opening lap pass that saw the German collide with his Ferrari team mate, resulting in a heated post-race discussion before the podium ceremony.

“I think it was a fair move on Vettel,” explained Kvyat after the race. “I saw the gap and I went for it. We didn’t touch, unfortunately for him, Kimi was on his other side. For me it was a logical move and it paid off with a podium.”

The result follows a up-and-down start to the season for Kvyat, who struggled with disappointing qualifying results in the opening rounds.

“It’s a nice boost for our side of the garage after a couple of tricky races,” says Kvyat.

“It’s also good for the team to be consistently fighting for podiums this year. It’s very encouraging for the season. I’m a very happy man today and it’s nice to carry this feeling heading into my home grand prix in Russia.”

2016 Chinese Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
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    56 comments on “Kvyat: turn one move ‘paid off’ with podium”

    1. suicidal, desperate maybe not borderline maybe but seeing his teammate up the road surely made him do a Ricciardo, the gap was there though and of the three Kimi had the least spatial awareness in my opinion. Vettel on the other hand has a relationship with his teammate so he had to place the blame on Kyvat. I think the other drivers arent close to their teammates as the Ferrari boys as Kyvat basically told Vettel you’re on the podium stop complaining

      1. ‘Kimi had the least spatial awareness’? In what planet are you?

        1. I do not even think mim5 is on any planet. He is simply lost in space…
          What is really sad about this result today is that Kvyat did not get any lessons learned from it. Or actually he did. That it pays off to drive totally reckless and expect others just to give way. I am actually sad to see Vettel to have move away from Kvyat to avoid the crash with him, as that would have been the right outcome, no matter who of the two would be able to drive on or not. Today there was absolutely no downside of abusive driving for Kvyat, so expect him to do that again next time. And FIA could not really hand out any penalties to him either today, as he was not in contact with Vettel. It was Vettel’s decision and handywork that let him to avoid collision with Kvyat. Unfortunately that reflective Vettel-move to avoid collision with Kvyat led him straight into Kimi, who had nowhere to go or time to react from such abrupt departure from normal racing lines by his teammate.

          1. I could not disagree more with you, there was a gap to the right of vettel which kvyat saw and took advantage of, he was further along than vettel which means he has to give him the room, but vettel looked to turn right and noriced kvyat pull up and turned slightly left, as he did kimi turned right and the rest is history, I wouldnt put blame on anyone and I would never say what kvyat did should never be done by aany driver, if anything I think he is least to blame.

            1. Look at replay from Vettel on-board camera.
              And its obvious that Kvyat would have clipped him on Vettel’s front right tyre/car, if Vettel had not yanked it quick to the left.
              Kvyat was not in front of Vettel when Vettel turned off to the left, not at all. So it is not correct what you write. Look at replay please.

            2. Kvyat angle was far into corner than Vettel’s. Vettel missed the corner, just like Kimi, then tried to get back to inner line, but it was too late. By that time Kvyat was already ahead.

            3. I have taken screenshots of kvyat WELL ahead of vettel and hasnt hit Kimi yet
              http://postimg.org/image/c18pdc6k9/
              http://postimg.org/image/9xtorxhdl/

              So it is not correct what you say, why dont you look at the replay

          2. There was absolutely nothing wrong with DK’s move. No locked wheels, no contact with SV, just fair racing.

            SV went and had an accident all on his own.

            Seb’s outburst pre podium was just a little bit embarrassing, really. Is he demanding prior knowledge to any move before it happens? I’m really struggling to see his point.

          3. Stop making bad excuses for Vettel and accept that it was a racing incident. Vettel left too much room and Kvyat went for the gap, which is what a racing driver should do. Vettel was crying a lot today.

          4. Look at the situation from Kvyat’s point of view. In front of him he has Kimi who has locked up his brakes and run way out to the outside and Vettel who is significantly slower than him and running in the middle of the track. This is a point on the track where the concertina effect should be bunching the cars up and instead Vettel was losing ground to Ricciardo. There’s clearly a lane available to the inside and he made every effort to leave as much room as possible on the outside by running up on the curb. He really had no reason to expect Kimi to turn sharply down toward his teammate, which is what ultimately caused the crash. There’s no doubt that it was aggressive, but we’ve seen far worse from other drivers including Vettel himself. Do we not remember Button chastising him in Japan for cutting across the track to push him into the grass on the start? How about Hamilton simply not turning at the first turn in Austin and running his teammate off the course? Vettel has to realize that if he leaves that much space on the inside on the first lap and is running slow there is a very real chance that the space is going to be filled by another car.

        2. @sravan-pe in a planet where replays exist. Anyway, from the replays Kimi locksup going into turn 1 almost leaves the track,big mistake, then he decides to come back and he hits Vettel. If Vettel was aware of Kyvat who was aware of the gap, Kimi should have been aware of the cars around him. After contact with Vettel he goes off track and comes back squeezing Ericsson who collides with Hamilton.

          1. And on your planet, you also have replay then from today’s race? ;o)
            I am asking as you say BIG MISTAKE from Kimi. On your replay, please see why Kimi is braking, and you see of course it is no mistake at all. Far from it. Its to avoid collision with the car just in front and slightly to the left of him. As Vettel had to weir to the left to avoid Kvyat collision, then Vettel bumps into Kimi’s rear right. Reason why Kimi of course looses the direction he was on. There is absolutely no way that Kimi can see or foresee what is going on behind him, between Vettel and Kvyat.
            As said, lucky we did not end up with a huge pileup today in turn1.

            1. ‘There is absolutely no way that Kimi can see or foresee what is going on behind him’ my point exactly, Vettel was able to see Kyvat behind him, Kimi wasnt able to.

            2. Not even Vettel shares your view anymore. Heres Vettel’s statement for you: https://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/headlines/2016/4/vettel-diffuses-kvyat-row.html
              And here is a good replay from good angles, so you can see for yourself that Kvyat did absolutely nothing wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYdYN8Unh4
              Love this part of F1! It shows that both, drivers, fans and the sport is very much still alive :)

            3. Kimi should understand that having just run wide because he misjudged his braking that he is going to have cars passing inside of him. He doesn’t have to see Kvyat to know that is a possibility.

          2. @mim5 You must be blind.

    2. I think Kvyat was too agressive into turn 1, Vettel had to make way. If Vettel stayed where he was Kvyat was surely going to get a “causing a collision” penalty, but what’s the point, Vettel would then be out of the race.

      And Kvyat seems to think that because Vettel was on the podium, everything is ok. Maybe for him crashing into your teammate and ruining his race isn’t that important, but it is.

      Kudos to both Ferraris for making it back though, seeing them passing through the field was amazing.

      1. Stop making excuses for Vettel. Kvyat made a great overtake and Vettel decided to have a cry about it afterwards.

        1. Stop attacking Vettel. Kvyat’s move was identical to the one Bottas put on Hamilton in Bahrain – except that Vettel reacted quickly to avoid the collision. Bottas was penalized for that move, in case you have forgotten.

          1. It was just a bunch of cars racing. Kvyat went for a gap that was there and pulled it off. Great stuff. More of that please.

            1. Yeah it looked like good racing to me, if Kvyat saw the gap and didn’t go for it he wouldn’t be a racer.
              The only person I would have penalised would have been for Kimi, for rejoining the track and causing the crash between the Sauber and Hamilton.

          2. I wouldn’t have given Bottas a penalty for that move, either. That being said, these moves aren’t exactly the same. Kvyat was able to get much further up beside Vettel, and was actually ahead when Vettel moved away. Furtermore, there were a lot of cars running a wide line through that corner, so the issue was more about Kimi pinching down and not giving that option to Vettel.

      2. Vettel did not need to get out of the way. He was already out of the way and as a result there was a gap where kvyat went through. If vettel had positioned his car better there would have been no gap for kvyat. But in the incident the only thing vettel needed to do was to hold his line but he did not manage even that taking out his team mate. Only reason vettel did not get a penalty was because the other car was his team mate. Personally I think it was racing incident and did not need penalties although I’m sure fia would have given one.

    3. I don’t think it was as bad as it looked. It was teh sort of move that happens in that corner, because of it’s nature. It opens up and then it tightens.

      Kimi was already out of shape there, and Seb nearly followed him. It was unfortunate, but not “suicidal”.

    4. Watched it back a few times and there was nothing wrong with it at all. I’m watching it back again (F1 website has a video)… when Kvyat committed to the move there was enough room to drive a bus through the gap, and even when he has his nose ahead of Vettel there was space.

      Unless he has psychic powers, he couldn’t have known the gap between the Ferraris would close so quickly… and even if he did, it wouldn’t have been his problem.

      1. You are definitely not looking at replay from todays race at that corner then.
        Look at the replay from Vettel’s onboard camera, and then tell me where Kvyat was when Vettel turned sharp left to avoid collision with Kvyat?
        Clearly you have not seen that, as what you write above:
        (“and even when he has his nose ahead of Vettel there was space. “)
        is not correct.
        Yes, there was space at that time, because its made by Vettel who turn sharp left OFF THE RACING LINE to avoid the collision, LONG BEFORE Kvyat is even halfway up on the side of Vettel.
        I just sooo wish that Vettel would have taken the hit at that time. Vettel may as result have left the race due to total damage to car and probably also a pile up with the drivers behind. But at least Kvyat would have learned that such reckless driving is not how you win a race nor a podium. And Kvyat would also have been given a proper penalty Perez/Maldo/Grosjean style…

        The video can btw be found on F1 official website with the post-race press conference. From top view its less obvious what was really going on and the dynamics involved. But later in the press conf video footage, halfway through you also have the on-board footage from turn 1. Good educational for all to watch and lets then have some better informed comments please.
        Reality is of course that both Vettel and Kvyat made it to the podium today, and good for them.
        And blessed that we did not see more fractured carbon fibre or severe hurt drivers in a total turn 1 pile-up.

        1. Upon reflection, however, the Ferrari driver indicated his stance had softened, saying he could appreciate better the chain of events that led to him swiping into the side of team mate Kimi Raikkonen as the duo rounded the right hander, causing both men damage.

          “What happened on the first lap, in the end, is a racing incident,” Vettel said.

          “Kimi locked up in Turn 1. I tried to go inside to pass him. Daniil was behind me. He had a better start and was lining up for the same move initially. I was determined to overtake Kimi. Daniil was determined to overtake me.

          “Kimi came back from the left, Kvyat came from the back right and I was reacting to him. From my side I didn’t really know where to go, I was sandwiched between Kimi and Daniil.

        2. You might need to take your rose tinted glasses or finger boy cap off before analysing the videos. I did not see anything wrong with Kvyat’s move in to that turn. It was a racing incident, and if you want to blame anyone, I think the blame lies with Kimi Raikkonen and Seb Vettel. Kimi for going wide and cutting in, and to Vettel for leaving the racing line open and then getting sandwiched.

        3. Seen it from Vettel’s onboard too, several times, and my view remains exactly the same. When Kvyat committed to the move, there was more than enough space and no reason for him to even think about backing off. Even without the tiny little wheel movement Vettel made that barely altered his line, Kvyat would still have had space to go through – not that it matters, because Kvyat had every right to be on that piece of tarmac and Vettel had no right to assume he could retake the inside line. If Vettel had to steer ‘sharp left’ to avoid a driver who was entitled to racing room, that’s his problem.

          As for the ‘racing line’, it’s Turn 1 in China on the first lap… there are about 8 ‘racing lines’ and both drivers were on one of them. Vettel ran a bit wide, then attempted to take a line (the inside) that was already occupied by someone else, so he had to correct slightly. Raikkonen, having also run wide, attempted to take the centre of the track, unaware that Vettel had no option but to be in the same place.

          The crash wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just caused by the nature of the corner and three drivers (entirely understandably) not being aware of exactly what the other two were doing. Kvyat didn’t know Raikkonen was going to come in from the outside and leave Vettel driving into a wedge; Vettel didn’t know Kvyat was going to come down the inside and take the piece of tarmac he needed, given the line Raikkonen took a few metres later; and Raikkonen didn’t know Vettel had been forced to stay on the centre line, and assumed he could himself take it.

          “Lets then have some better informed comments please.”

          Or at least, some comments less dimissive of the views of those who disagree and less presumptive of the educational status of others.

        4. “Good educational for all to watch and lets then have some better informed comments please”

          Consider yourselves patronised.

    5. In the third race of the championship SF is failing to achieve whatever they think they’re supposed to. Sebastian was very upset after the race and I can perfectly comprehend that. The reason is obvious: RBR is closer to Mercedes than Ferrari. He knows that guys from Milton Keynes are a ‘lean mean racing machine’ and he didn’t reckon with that, till now. DK’s move was great! He went for a gap and he got it right. Well done Daniil! Daniel finished 15s behind him; after puncture! Another reason to be upset. So, I feel sorry for Seb but glad at the same time because the championship will be very interesting to watch!

      1. “RBR is closer to Mercedes than Ferrari.”

        Had a genuine laugh there. :)

        If you don’t know why, go check out how the constructors’ championship looks after two Ferrari retirements. Yep, still ahead of Red Bull.

        1. @paeschli You can blame whoever for whatever you like but “RBR is closer to Mercedes than Ferrari.” is not true whatsoever.

          1. @xtwl

            Well that was what I was trying to say yes :)

        2. Enjoy it buddy ’till Montreal.

    6. Watching the replay from multiple angles, I can come only to one conclusion – Raikkonen keeps being a liability and both tangle with Seb, and Lewis’ tangle with Nasr are Raikkonen’s fault.

      First he simply cut over Vettel’s path, causing all the drama, and then returned on the track in an absolutely unsafe manner, forcing people who were already on the track to brake suddenly and swerve, causing Nasr-Hamilton contact.

      In the last few years, Raikkonen has shown constant disregard for driving etiquette, always acting as if he knows better then the people who came up with the safety rules and acting as if the safety rules are for other people, not him.

      1. This.
        The way he rejoins the track shows he really doesn’t care about others passing by, both in this race and silverstone 2014. I suppose “rejoin safely” is a thing in the rule books

      2. Do you think it would have been safer if kimi had stopped his car there? :D

        You also need to understand the drivers don’t have the tv view of the race. At that time kimi may have not even known his front wing was missing. You can’t see your front wing from the car. You will only notice it missing when you get loads of understeer and lock front brakes when braking.

        Things sometimes happen in t1. Sometimes you get hit and only little later realize your car is heavily damaged.

        1. By rule a driver who has left the track may only return to the track when it is safe to do so, so by pulling back onto the tarmac in front of other cars, he is responsible for that incident. It has nothing to do with his missing wing.

    7. Andre Furtado
      17th April 2016, 17:20

      My only issue with this move is the consistency from the stewards. I’m ok with the move. However I don’t think a my driver feels safe doing it because Stewart’s are so inconsistent handing out penalties. I would love for that to be 100% allowed so we could see more drivers taking a chance. However he was lucky as his move on the ferraris could have easily been penalized depending on the stewards.

    8. The helicopter shot clearly shows that Kvyat had a lot of speed into the corner and came right to middle of the road after passing Vettel. With so much speed he wouldve definitely drifted left into the other cars and wouldve crashed into Vettel in a Ros-Ham like incident from Spa 2014 (Vet clipping Kvyats left rear) had Vettel not taken evasive action. Check the videos if you think its not true and you would definitely agree

      1. That is the racing line though there. Nobody on the front kept it on the inside like you seem to suggest everyone should have done. Only alonso or button and the cars behind them kept to the inside because at that point it was a traffic jam there. Kvyat was also hit from behind by vettel so he ran little wide as a result of that contact which was caused by vettel. Had vettel not hit kvyat then the latter could have held a tighter line through there. At that point of the contact kvyat was already past vettel.

      2. Totally agree with you. But some other posters ignore the physics involved and potentially prefer the bumper-car racing approach where everything goes…

    9. I find it amusing that both of Kvyat’s podiums have come after Ricciardo was demoted from in front of him (first time was arguably his fault though). He’s still yet to get a firm grip on that Red Bull seat in my opinion.

    10. That move only paid off because it ruined the Ferrari driver’s races. Vettel should’ve held ground and let Kyvatt hit him instead of Kimi. The kid might have a different opinion of his racing then.

      1. Vettel should have held a tighter line and not let it be an issue. Also if we use that logic, back when Vettel was emulating Schumacher on starts and chopping across the nose of other cars, those drivers should have held their line and sent him spinning into the pit exit rather than moving away.

      2. Vettel is obviously diverting attention as he blatently went for the other Ferrari on purpose, probably frustated that he was outperformed all weekend by the over-the-hill Finn while the big boss was watching.

        //silly-mode-off//

    11. Lets call it what it is, a racing incident.

      Vettel tried to explain a point..

      Kimi was on and over the limit now taking the outside, Vettel was on the inside trajectory to the apex of the corner, Kvyat goes for early apex that because of his speed would and did push him wide (check replay after the crash). Kvyat was not on the inside line, as he would have to be to make it stick. Luckily for him Seb saw him and moved out of his way… All good and all fair. Thete was a gap, he is a racing driver, he took it.

      But it does show major differences in both drivers. Firstly thinking in their minds…

      Vettel knows you cannot win the race in first corner, but you can loose it, so he is working hard to keep car toggether.

      Kvyat sees a gap and tries to win the race right now. Early apex would ruin his second corner, but hey why would he think so far ahead.

      Vettel is all abo

      1. Ahh phone didnt eat my post, sorry about double posting.

    12. Phone ate my post… Grrr.

      Well racing incident… But it shows great difference between the two drivers.

      Vettel is all about maximizing the lap, race, weekend, season. He knows he can loose the race in first corner but can only win it on the last lap.

      Kvyat on the other side is there to maximize here and now. He drives with 0 margin for error, on the limit, with bucket of talent. If there is a closing gap he goes for it. That kind of thing is nice for TV audience, but poor for winning championships…

      Even worse maximizing early apex in that corner is poor for msximizing turn 1-2. You are suppose to take late apex turn 1 and early apex turn 2. He was on course to have a mess and got lucky.

      That is why he doesnt win races and he will never be one of the greats like Vettel. It did get him a podium. But it wont get him a podium every weekend.

      So good thing nobody punished him, but I’ll be very suprised if he ever wins a race.

    13. There are two tests for a move:

      1. Could the attacking driver make the apex? Although China’s first corner is a strange one and has multiple possible apexes, Kvyat was a long way wide when it tightened.

      2. Could the attacking driver keep it on the track? Kvyat certainly did.

      Really, there is no way you could call it anything other than a racing incident although Vettel was rightly frustrated because it was one of those “move or we crash” type of situations. The move that Vettel needed to make was only a few inches, but Raikonnen was already narrowing his line and there was nothing anyone could do.

      Not the kind of racing you want to lose a position to but within the rules.

      1. Kvyat did drift to the middle of the track as the track transitioned from right to left, but there was still room for a car to his left had Vettel been able to stay beside him. There’s also the issue that after Kimi cut across the front of Vettel, it left both Ferraris moving significantly slower than the rest of the field. Looking at the replay, we can see the gap between Vettel and the front two cars growing despite the fact that they are in a braking zone and the loss of speed should bring the cars closer together. We’re asking Kvyat to really stand on the brakes if we want him to bail out of that move.

    14. Lee Porcelli
      18th April 2016, 1:53

      Racing incident. If Kvyat had not taken advantage of that size gap into the first corner of a F1 race for Red Bull he is not doing his job. There was no action taken by officials. Over the years Vettel has made some tough moves on opponents / these have made him the great driver that he is today.

    15. Great move and stood up to Vettel well afterwards. If anyone should have backed out it was Vettel but understand why he didn’t. It was a racing incident nothing more.

    16. DK rightly took the gap but then he never followed the corner drifting out and squeezing all on his outside because he couldn’t turn any tighter while the cars on his outside had slowed enough to go around that corner. First corner needs common sense.

    17. Please smile while it lasts..
      Next year he gonna be replaced by exciting MaxX who on course to become youngest ever WDC.
      *just wonder F1 can have teenage champion or not?

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