Daniel Ricciardo put in a storming final, flying lap to slot his Red Bull into second place, ahead of both of the Scuderia Ferrari drivers, for the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix, making his legendary smile even bigger than usual.
The Australian is confident a podium finish is possible in Sunday’s race:
“Compared to last year we’ve certainly got a bit more from the power unit. We’ve seen the trend in the first couple of races and the deficit hasn’t been as big as last year on the straights but I didn’t expect to be standing here unless it was a wet qualifying.
“To be front row in the dry is pretty cool. A few people joked saying it’s the haircut so maybe that’s what it is: aerodynamic.
“The positive is that Niko’s on the Soft and we’re obviously starting on the Super Soft, so the start should be interesting. Hopefully we’ll battle the Ferrari’s for the podium.
“New or old qualifying system, we seem to be competitive so that’s nice.”
The Red Bull is performing strongly here at the Shanghai International Circuit, with only an error in the final corner of his final lap, relegating Daniil Kvyat to P6, otherwise we could have seen two Red Bull’s higher up the order.
The RB12 looks like it will be able to take on the Ferrari’s and challenge them for a podium on Sunday, and with plenty of other action set to be played out amongst the field, we should be set for an action packed race!
