Red Bull hoped to be stronger at Suzuka
Red Bull Racing saw its drivers qualify 6th and 9th on the grid for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo proved happy with 6th after his crash earlier this weekend while Sebastian Vettel came 9th, blaming a lack of running in FP3.
Daniel Ricciardo, 6th: ”I was quite surprised by Sebastian’s news, I didn’t know before this morning. I’m glad I got one year to race with him and see how he works, I heard a lot about his work ethic before the season and it was good to see that this year and to go against him. Daniil’s coming in and I expect him to be quick – I know him pretty well and it should be good fun working with him.
I’m happy with how we bounced back in qualifying after my mistake yesterday, I thought we would be better here, but I think sixth is realistically what we could do today. If it rains tomorrow then we should be looking a bit better”
Sebastian Vettel, 9th: “I wasn’t entirely happy with that qualifying, we lacked some running this morning but I wasn’t able to go with the track and was on the back foot, I struggled a bit on corners that I normally love, so it’s not easy, but tomorrow we still have a chance if it rains, if it doesn’t then it’s tougher from where we start but we will see."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “On face value, sixth and ninth aren’t exactly stellar grid positions but, with the decision on set-up that we made for tomorrow’s race due to the inevitability of rain at some point, hopefully that will pay dividends tomorrow. We will see in 24 hours. I think Daniel extracted everything he could out to the car today and it was good to have both drivers getting through to Q3.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault engine support team leader: “It was a hard time today. Daniel managed to get the maximum from the car but Seb was less fortunate after missing some of FP3 with an ERS issue. Although it was fixed for qualifying the lack of running did not give him the time to set-up the car and maps. We need to recover some pace for the race, but conditions tomorrow will be very different in any case.”
