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Frustrated Kvyat urges Toro Rosso to sort out reliability

A frustrated Daniil Kvyat has called on his Toro Rosso team to improve reliability on his side of the garage, as he feels frequent mechanical issues are stopping him from showing his “full potential”.

Marshals remove the car of Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12, from the circuit

Marshals remove the car of Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12, from the circuit

Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

 Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso
 Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12
 Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL32, Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12, as behind Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren MCL32 hits a debris
Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12
Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12, retires, technical issues
Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso, waves to fans in the crowd after retiring from the race
Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12

Kvyat, who was demoted to Toro Rosso by employer Red Bull four races into the 2016 campaign, has scored just four points so far this season.

He has suffered three race-ending mechanical failures in eight grands prix in 2017, and admitted after his latest retirement in Baku that he was not satisfied with the current situation.

“I’m slightly concerned that issues that I’m having are not letting me to show my full potential,” Kvyat said. “For sure I would not like to continue like this.

“I will ask the team now to investigate everything, because I’m not, let's say, extremely happy. I do everything I can and, you know, it is very frustrating.”

Kvyat admitted his Azerbaijan GP retirement, brought on by an electrical shutdown, was especially hard to take as he watched his midfield rivals pick up “free points”.

Watching with a "heavy heart"

Among those midfield rivals was teammate Carlos Sainz, who recovered from an opening-lap spin to finish eighth. The Spaniard now has 29 points to Kvyat's four.

Asked how his Baku weekend had been up until the shutdown, Kvyat – who headed Sainz in FP1, FP2, FP3 and qualifying – said: “It was probably one of the best.

"Perfect Friday, perfect Saturday. Starts, still need to work on them, but we were anyway in the mix after that.

“Of course it was free points for everyone who finished today, basically. I was watching the race with [a] heavy heart, to be honest.

“Every time this kind of race happens, my car shuts itself or they give me three penalties in a row or something like that.”

He added: “Everything was going on and I was like 'argh, there's another position for free, here is another one, here I could have already been third'. And I'm just sitting there watching the race.

“It’s so frustrating. Seems like since I came to Toro Rosso that is the story. And I want it to change as fast as possible."

Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov

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