Tost admits Toro Rosso exceeded expectations

STR had two bad races in Belgium and Italy, where it paid the price for a lack of engine development, but Singapore has demonstrated the potential of the chassis.

"I said we knew from the beginning that Spa and Monza would be difficult because of the straights and last year's power unit," Tost told Motorsport.com.

"We expected to be competitive in Singapore, but to be honest I didn't expect to be sixth and seventh! I expected at least one car in Q3 and one car close to Q3. Now both are, and that means for today, we have achieved our goal. But the race is tomorrow."

Tost hopes that a good race will turn around Kvyat's difficult season.

"I'm really happy for Daniil, because he needs this confidence boost. I just hope we will do a good race tomorrow, because this clears up his head, then he will come back to his performance which we know he can do.

"He won the GP3 championship and there's a reason behind this. I'm convinced if he has a good race tomorrow and if he has some successful race weekends in the future that he will come back."

Tost stressed that the importance of getting both drivers to the flag on Sunday evening, given the tight battle with McLaren for sixth place in the championship.

"We need to finish tomorrow, because we need the points. We have here a chance to be in front of McLaren, our director competitor, and we need every single point.

"I just hope, first of all, they do a good start, because last year I think we started in fifth position here with Max and he stalled the engine, and that they survive the first lap. Then the rest, we will see."

One intriguing aspect of this weekend is that the two drivers have been running different packages – with Kvyat using the older spec – and yet the outcome today was almost identical.

"We have two cars which are working as you saw today quite well. I don't want to comment on any technical details or upgrades, because as you can see from the result, it's simply not worth discussing this."