Apr.25 (GMM) Daniil Kvyat is heading to his home race in Russia confident that Sebastian Vettel now knows him better.
Vettel, the four-time world champion, took on his younger rival in a verbal argument after the Chinese grand prix, following an incident that resulted in the German making contact with his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Kvyat held his own in the argument, and now tells Russia’s Sportbox: “When you fight with a driver for the first or second time, usually you begin to know him better.
“Vettel and I got to know each other better in China,” said the 21-year-old.
“We had a great race, I got on the podium and we realised that we can compete with Ferrari.”
Kvyat said it will be an enjoyable and yet busy home race at Sochi this weekend, with the event having been moved from October last year to May in 2016.
“The fact the race in Sochi has moved from autumn to spring and that the weather will be moderate is good,” said Vitaly Petrov, who was F1’s first Russian driver.
“If there is rain? It means we could see a variety of tactics, and the chance that Red Bull and Kvyat could win will be higher than on a dry track,” he added.