Ricciardo laments missed opportunity
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was angry with the unlucky circumstances which prevented him of getting much closer to pole position. The Australian is going to start tomorrow’s race from third position, but he hopes on a strong race pace from his car.
The three-time GP-winner started the qualifying with high hopes as he thought there was possibility of beating Mercedes fair and square on track.
Those hopes diminished when Fernando Alonso had a spin at turn 9 which resulted in a double yellow flag situation around that place.
“When I saw Fernando had spun in Turn 9, I was furious as I was up on my lap by quite a bit and when I heard Nico’s pole time, then the time was definitely there.”
“How affected him or Lewis were (by the yellow flag), I don’t know, but I think we had better than a 19.9 in us. We don’t get many opportunities to get a pole from Mercedes, but I thought today there was definitely a chance.”
Ricciardo played down Red Bull’s chances in the race after Friday’s race run simulation because he meant Mercedes were out of reach. However, he completed a race run in the third practice session which showed a much improved pace compared to the previous day.
“But, the positives are that we were quick, we had good pace and I was happy with the car. I was happy with it yesterday and I think we found even more speed for today, so hopefully that means good things for tomorrow.”
The Perth-born driver admitted he had much fun today as rainy, slippery circumstances made it very hard for everyone not to make mistakes.
"It was fun with the changing conditions, I really enjoyed it; let’s say I embraced the conditions from the start. It was crazy, there was aquaplaning, spray, it was really hairy and the adrenalin was flowing. It was drying very fast and we had to adapt and be on it, it was cool,” added Ricciardo.
