Toro Rosso has 'strong baseline' after Friday practice - Kvyat

Daniil Kvyat believes that his Toro Rosso team have a 'strong baseline' to work with as they enjoyed a very good day on Friday in Mexico.

The Russian finished the regular FP2 qualifying simulations in sixth place, just 0.177s down on Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.

His teammate Pierre Gasly was one place behind, but the Frenchman was very happy with his day's work after setting his fastest time on the medium tyres.

“I think it was a great Friday, probably one of the best. We had a good P1, a strong FP2, especially considering we did the fastest lap with the medium tyre."

Kvyat was not as chipper as Gasly in the post-session interviews, but nevertheless he was happy with the performance of the car.

“I think it was okay. For Friday practice it was quite good, it’s not bad to have a strong baseline but we still need to fine-tune some things. I don’t think we were the only ones smiling today."

No soft tyres for Kvyat during long runs

Unlike Gasly, the Russian did run the soft tyres during FP2 for his long-run, and used them instead to set his fastest time.

“I did only one good, fast lap on the soft tyres in the session, and the rest were long runs. The lap felt quite okay for me so there are no big issues.

“This track has always been quite tricky on the long runs, so we need to analyse and understand what we can to better to make these tyres last on Sunday. I didn’t find any particular issues today though.

“My goal for Sunday is to just drive the car and get the best out of it, nothing has changed. We’ll see what happens.”