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Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat believes he made a step in the right direction by driving on instinct during the German Grand Prix, following his recent loss of form.

The Russian scored a podium in the third round of the Formula 1 season in China, but lost his Red Bull seat after the next race and has scored just two points since rejoining Toro Rosso.

He admitted his F1 future might not be "bright" if he cannot reverse his fortunes after qualifying a miserable 19th at Hockenheim.

While he was not overjoyed with his 15th place-finish in the race, one place behind team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, he felt like progress had been made.

"It was special," he said. "I just got in the car and did my job and was not really thinking about it too much.

"Don't overanalyse it, I did my usual thing and just drove on my instincts and it played out quite well.

"I'll continue this approach as it worked well well on Sunday and hopefully it'll be much better for the second half of the season.

"Already I feel like compared to [Saturday] I've made a few steps ahead."

Kvyat conceded that he has been trying too hard since returning to Toro Rosso but is now starting to relax a bit more.

"After all these things happened I was trying to prove a bit too much of myself," he said.

"I was trying to ask too much from myself and it wasn't possible.

"When you do this you really tense up and it's not good because you kind of go over your own capacity.

"I was angry at many circumstances and tried to really force things, but I cannot force things.

"I have to just go with my instincts like I always do like it was on Sunday and I felt that was a good day because of that."