Both Red Bull drivers aims for points in Austin
Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo was happy to qualify fifth for the United States Grand Prix whereas Sebastian Vettel aims to finish in a few points as he will start from the pitlane following a penalty.
Daniel Ricciardo, 5th: ”I’m pretty happy with the top five, realistically we’re fighting for the last spot on the podium, if Mercedes have a clean race, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position for that. We were close to Felipe, but hopefully the clean side of the grid will help me out a bit, so we’ll see what happens. I’d say we’re better on tyres than the Williams, but their straight line speed makes that advantage disappear. Hopefully we’ll have some good clean battles on track tomorrow, the circuit certainly allows for that and provides some good opportunities, so hopefully we can have some fun!”
Sebastian Vettel, 17th (to start from pitlane due to engine change penalty): “It’s difficult to say where we are compared to the others teams, it doesn’t seem too bad, depending on the conditions which are currently good. In the race tomorrow I think we can move up, our race pace seems okay, but it will be tight. It will be difficult to overtake, as we don’t have the ideal straight line speed, hopefully we can get some points tomorrow. Seventh would be a good result.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A very tidy lap by Daniel, I think fifth was the optimum today. He came close to out-qualifying Felipe, but the third row of the grid is still a strong place to be starting tomorrow’s race. It’s a long drag up the hill to the first corner, so hopefully we can make a good start. A very frustrating qualifying for Sebastian who was only able to do one lap; whatever his result today he will still be starting from the pit lane. On top of that we had to be extremely prudent on engine mileage to make sure we don’t incur another engine change before the end of the year.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault engine support team leader: “First, we must apologise to Sebastian, as using a sixth Power Unit here forces him to start the race from the pit-lane. As a result there was no need to push in qualifying. Daniel did a good job to set the fifth fastest time at such a challenging track for the Power Unit, which had no problems at all. Tomorrow’s race strategy will prove decisive as tyre degradation usually plays a significant role. Starting from the pit-lane means Seb faces a tough challenge fighting with a lot of slower cars. But I'm sure he'll give everything he has to bag some points for the team.”
