Daniil Kvyat felt pleased to have ended his Formula 1 podium drought stretching back to last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix as Red Bull took the fight to Ferrari in China on Sunday.
Kvyat scored his breakthrough podium at the Hungaroring last summer, but has since failed to finish in the top three, prompting questions about his future with Red Bull in light of Toro Rosso youngster Max Verstappen’s impressive start to life in F1.
Kvyat proved his worth in China on Sunday though, making a bold start much to the chagrin of Sebastian Vettel to move up to third before running in second place for much of the race.
Although he ultimately lost out to Vettel in the final stint of the race, Kvyat was pleased with his performance en route to third at the flag.
“It feels excellent to finish on the podium,” Kvyat said. “After Hungary it felt like quite a long time. You always want to see the result and today it confirmed itself.
“The start, corner one, corner two was a bit risky but in the end we can talk about it forever – but it paid off and I’m on the podium. It feels good.
“The race itself I would say was quite controlled. I think our main competitor throughout the whole race was Sebastian. I think he made an excellent recovery.
“We probably missed out a little bit not having the soft tire for the last stint. On the medium we couldn’t really resist for too long to him. He overtook us.
“But all in all it was a very encouraging weekend. We are consistently [the] third fastest team on the track, and I think with a bit of development in the future we can give a fight to these guys a bit more.
“So it’s all looking promising for the future.”
