Daniel Ricciardo set the sixth fastest time during qualifying in Belgium and felt he did the best job he could have done during the session, and was happy to be in the mix for the top places in a tightly packed grid behind the dominant Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Ricciardo ended the session just 0.102s behind third placed Valtteri Bottas, with positions three to nine covered by just 0.288s, although all were well behind the pace of Mercedes.
The grid penalty for Romain Grosjean promotes the Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver to fifth on the grid, the same place from which he won the same Grand Prix a year ago, with Ricciardo feeling sector two is where the team make up for its power deficiencies in sectors one and three.
“It’s pretty cool that everyone is so close and I am pretty happy with the lap,” said Ricciardo. “I don’t think I left anything on the table and it’s good to be in the mix.
“Grosjean has got a penalty so that will push me up to fifth and that’s where I started from last year – not that I’m superstitious or anything, but you can always hope!
“Sector two is fun for us and we can push really hard there. We bleed some time in sectors one and three but the chassis feels good which is really positive for the team.
“Fingers crossed we have some good battles on our hands for the race tomorrow, the honey badger will try and find some honey in the forest here and go after it!”
