Daniel Ricciardo felt the changes made by the team to the set-up of his car overnight benefited him greatly as he was able to qualify fourth on the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver joins team-mate Max Verstappen on the second row of the grid at the Sepang International Circuit, but despite doing enough to qualify fourth, felt he lost some time in the final sector as he lost traction due to a lack of grip from his tyres after pushing harder in the first two sectors.
“It was quite an exciting quali session and my lap was pretty clean,” said Ricciardo. “I pushed quite a bit in the first two sectors; I think I got more out of the tyres compared to the last sector where I struggled for traction and lost a little bit of time.
“From where we were yesterday, I am pretty happy. We made quite a few changes overnight and they definitely helped me out today, so I was feeling a lot more comfortable in the car.”
Ricciardo feels Red Bull should be in a good position on Sunday after having a positive feeling about the team’s long run pace, with the aim to remain ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari pairing as the two teams battle to finish second in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Our race pace is looking good too as we saw from Max’s sessions yesterday,” said Ricciardo. “We should have a nice battle for the podium tomorrow and we’ll try to stay ahead of the Ferraris. They are normally pretty good on their tyres here but we have an extra set of soft tyres for the race which should work well for us.
“As a team we are pumped to lock out the second row at this circuit and we should have a good race on our hands for tomorrow.”
