Red Bull look to have found some improvements on their car with both drivers putting in competitive lap-times in both practice sessions for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo recorded a lap-time of 1:41.029 in FP1 to finish in sixth position, 1.996s behind Lewis Hamilton who topped the session. Perhaps more importantly, Ricciardo was quicker than both Williams drivers and the Toro Rosso cars.
The Australian improved even more and ended the session in third position with a lap-time of 1:38.311, just 1.092s behind Hamilton who once again topped the timing-sheets.
Following the session, Ricciardo said: “We had a good Friday, we got all the running we could from the sessions and our pace looks good. We had a few aero updates and drivability is always getting better, we definitely have had an improvement and that’s all we can ask for. We obviously have a few more steps to take but we’re making them in the right direction, so that’s positive.”
It was a day of mixed fortunes for Ricciardo’s teammate, Daniil Kvyat, with the 20-year-old suffering from a brake failure which caused him to continue straight on at the end of the long straight.
The Russian had just left the pits with a new front-wing when his brakes caught fire early on in the lap, which ultimately led to the failure and the end of his day.
Before that incident, Kvyat had also put in some competitive laps and finished just behind his teammate in FP1, finishing in seventh position with a lap-time of 1:41.097.
Kvyat still managed to end FP2 in sixth position, despite not being able to complete the session, with a lap-time of 1:38.737.
Afterwards, Kvyat said: “We are investigating what happened with the brakes, it felt like I couldn’t stop the car, so we need to learn more about that. Everything had been fine up until the end of FP2. It’s a shame I couldn’t make a longer run but we still got many useful laps in. We brought some upgrades here and they look quite positive.”
