Daniel Ricciardo is happy with the strong performance seen by Red Bull Racing on the opening day of practice for the German Grand Prix.
The Aussie finished the opening Free Practice in sixth with a fastest lap time of 1:17.089, behind team-mate Max Verstappen and Ricciardo’s performance was strong heading into Free Practice 2 for the Milton Keynes outfit, finishing in fifth with a time of 1:16.490. He was unable to out perform Verstappen and had to settle for behind again in the second practice at the Hockenheimring.
Ricciardo believes if the team can replicate their performance on Friday, they can have a strong chance in the race on Sunday.
“I enjoy the track around here actually,” said Ricciardo. “It’s cool and it’s got pretty good flow. The last sector is fun, but it’s tricky with the tyres.
“You’ve got some tight corners which seem to be harder on the rear tyres but then the last sector has got a lot of longer corners where you can hurt the front, so trying to balance the car isn’t always easy. But I felt we got on top of it more in FP2 so I’m pretty happy where we are now. We looked quite close to the Mercs on high fuel so that was promising.
“This afternoon’s race stint looked really good so if we can replicate what we did then on Sunday I think we can have a strong chance in the race. I’m obviously trying to keep up with all the rule changes but I’ve never been too fussed really. I think if it’s the same rules for everyone then let’s go and race and deal with what we’ve got.”
