Kvyat: I was one car length away from beating Sainz
- Bobby Vincent
Daniil Kvyat believes he was "one car length away" from finishing ahead of McLaren driver Carlos Sainz Jr at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Sainz got ahead of the Russian at the beginning of the race. When the Spaniard pitted, Kvyat managed to get back in front of him - but couldn't keep his position when he pitted himself.
"It was very close, I mean one car length," Kvyat said. "Just one car length would have got us ahead. I wll analyse later how it was. I think my first lap was mega, the second lap already the tyres were giving up.
"So maybe if we pitted just after one lap, we could have stayed ahead, I'm not sure, we will analyse, I don't know. I think it was a fantastic call anyway and we did our best."
Sainz recorded the fastest lap of the race once his tyres got back up to track temperature, and Kvyat reckons he should have pitted a lap sooner: "He tried to push super-hard, that's why I'm asking myself maybe he needed one lap to warm up the tyres, then after that his second lap was too good already for me. I had a tyre with 35 laps on."