AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost believes a puncture led to Daniil Kvyat’s scary crash during the British Grand Prix.
The Russian driver lost control on the first apex of the Maggotts and Becketts sequence before slamming into the barriers in a bizarre-looking accident.
Commenting on the crash though, an uninjured but clearly frustrated Kvyat initially blamed himself for spinning off.
“I think it was a very strong race despite the fact it was cut short,” he said in summary. “I had a good start, great pace and made quite a few overtakes, catching up to the cars in front.
“We were on for a good result today when all of a sudden at Turn 10 I lost the rear of the car. I thought it was my fault, as at first I always tend to blame myself, but after reviewing the video we saw that something happened out of my control, so we will need to check all the data to understand what exactly caused the failure.
“It’s disappointing as we could have scored some good points here today, but I will try again next week.”
Though it’s unlikely to be related to the tyre failures Mercedes and Carlos Sainz had in the closing laps, those happening on the front-left corner, the feeling was the left-rear may well have had a slow puncture which was then exaggerated over the kerb.
“Daniil started the race from the back in P19 due to a five-place grid position penalty,” AlphaTauri chief Tost explained. “But he had a good start and was immediately very competitive, catching up to Pierre [Gasly] in P12.
“He was actually behind him when he had his accident at Maggotts, which we will need to investigate but it looks like it might be due to a rear puncture.
“However, the most important thing is that he got out of the car without injuries and he is completely fine.
“It’s a real shame as he was showing great pace and I think he might have also finished in the points. We are now looking forward to next week for the second race in Silverstone.”
