Kvyat growing in confidence at Toro Rosso, qualifying P7 in Baku - MotorSportsTalk

Daniil Kvyat made no secret of his delight after qualifying seventh for the European Grand Prix in Baku, marking his best Saturday result since re-joining Toro Rosso.

Kvyat was demoted back to Red Bull’s junior Formula 1 team for the Spanish Grand Prix in May, swapping places with Max Verstappen.

The Russian driver struggled in Monaco and Canada, but appeared to find his feet on Saturday in Azerbaijan by reaching the top-10 shoot-out for pole position.

Kvyat ended the session seventh-fastest, just half a second off Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in P5, and will start the race sixth thanks to Sergio Perez’s five-place grid penalty.

“It was a good day, I’m quite happy!” Kvyat said.

“We managed to get some clean laps, something which isn’t easy to do here in Baku and a trouble-free qualifying session is definitely what I needed.

“It was tricky out there as the track was changing all the time and you had to go in line with the evolution, but we managed it well and did a good job.

“We will now try and do the same tomorrow – there will definitely be plenty of opportunities and we will have to be very alive and make sure we take them. I have to say I enjoyed today’s quali quite a lot.

“I’ve been feeling more and more confident with the car and to start tomorrow’s race from P7 is a positive result.”

Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. struggled to match Kvyat for pace, finishing 13th in Q2.

“A bit of a disappointing day for me – it’s a shame, because we had a decent Friday and I was feeling good,” Sainz said.

“We had new brakes on the car today and unfortunately I wasn’t feeling as confident as yesterday under braking.

“Maybe this could be a reason why in qualifying I just didn’t manage to extract the most out of the car… and if you also add the fact that there was a lot of traffic, in the end it wasn’t possible to get into Q3.

“Let’s see what we are capable of doing tomorrow, hopefully we can do another good comeback – it can be a very crazy race here, so I’m convinced that with a clever strategy and quick pit-stops we can manage it!

“All in all, we need to stay optimistic because tomorrow can certainly be a better day.”

The European Grand Prix is live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 8am ET on Sunday.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross