During his time in F1, ex-Red Bull prodigy Daniil Kvyat became renowned within the paddock for being reckless on the race track.
His outlandish manoeuvres and unforgiving style peaked during an incident with Sebastian Vettel at the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix.
Formula 1
This infamous crash saw the Russian branded ‘The Torpedo’ following a spat with the German star in the driver’s room post-race.
Vettel erupted after a clash on track between himself and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen on the first corner of the race, which he felt was Kyvat’s fault.
The drama began as soon as the lights went out with Vettel starting fourth on the grid and Kvyat two places behind in sixth.
Within moments of the race starting Vettel found himself wheel to wheel with his teammate entering the long right hander, which left the door open to a marauding Kvyat who came flying up the inside.
Vettel was sandwiched, and in a split second decision chose to avoid the ‘torpedo’, yet in doing so took out his teammate.
Raikkonnen took considerable damage as he spun out and lost his front wing in the process.
The German was quick to blame Kvyat on the team radio complaining that the Russian was ‘a madman’ for the ‘suicidal’ move.
Yet the stewards decided they would take no action against either driver as they deemed it a racing incident.
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Formula 1
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Vettel managed to recover and finish second in the race passing Kvyat in the process, with his teammate Raikkonen ending up fifth.
The drama didn’t end there as Vettel’s anger boiled over in the driver’s room.
He fumed: “You came like a torpedo!”
Kvyat laughed and replied: “I was racing”, but Vettel shot back: “Yeah, racing, but if I keep going the same line, we’ll crash.”
The Russian defended himself again, adding: “But we didn’t crash.”
Before an unhappy Vettel finished: “Yeah, you didn’t…”
On the podium, Kyvat continued to back himself too.
“You see the gap, you go for it on the inside. It was a risky move … but you have to take risks and I am on the podium,” he said, which is hard to argue with in Formula 1.
Kvyat and Vettel let their hair down after with a champagne shower as they became friends again[/caption]
Meanwhile, in another post-race chat, Vettel was asked about the crash saying: “S*** happens, that’s what happened. If you crash with your teammate you can’t be happy.”
The pair eventually repaired the fractured respect they had for each other as they shared the podium and champagne bottles.
We suspect things might not be so friendly if a similar incident happens between drivers this weekend in China.
Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport
