Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat Puts On A Show In His Home Country

20,000 passionate Red Bull fans took to the street in the Russian city of Kazan earlier this week in spite of heavy downpours, in order to see Daniil Kvyat push the RB7 to the limit.

For those in need of a (recent) history lesson, the RB7 won the Constructor’ Championship back in 2011 at the hands of Sebastian Vettel, winning 12 of 19 races, registering 18 poles and 10 fastest laps. Kvyat was racing in Formula Renault back then, from where he would eventually make his way into GP3 and of course Formula One.

As the weather worsened during the Kazan City Racing event, Daniil gave the fans something to cheer about as he strapped into the championship-winning RB7 and drove around a special course in front of the Kremlin of Tatarstan, as the republic’s President, Rustam Minnikhanov and Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin gathered to catch the action.

Daniil needed to use full wet tires on the car in order to complete his demo runs, yet still ended up giving fans plenty of donuts and burnouts to remember him by.

“It was a really nice event,” said the young Red Bull driver afterwards. “It was great to see so many people here, even if the weather wasn’t great, but because of that I think we saw the true fans of racing here in Russia and I was very pleased with that. It was great to do a show run on home soil. There were so many supporters of mine here today, and it was a great feeling to see them all here. I hope to see them all again in Sochi for the grand prix later this year.”

Even though Daniil and the RB7 were clearly the main attractions, fans also got the chance to see Red Bull athletes such as Dakar Rally-winning truck racer Ayrat Mardeev, drift king Nikita Shikov, stunt motorcyclist Arunas Gibieza and two-time Euro Rallycross champ Timur Timerzyanov.

It just goes to show that loyal motorsport fans aren’t afraid of a little rain – especially when they have plenty of incentives to stick around.