Daniel Ricciardo feels his Red Bull Racing squad have the pace to match the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Australian driver finished seventh fastest in the opening session on Friday but performed much better in the second session to finish second behind Nico Rosberg, finishing just 0.194 seconds adrift, but ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Ricciardo hopes the pace the team showed on Friday can continue for the rest of the weekend, and should it continue into Sunday, the Australian feels it could be an interesting race.
“I’m happy with today,” admitted Ricciardo. “This morning was solid and the long run pace was good. We made a few changes in between the two sessions and look pretty good for now so hopefully we’ll stay like that.
“On our long run pace we look like we’re able to match Mercedes, possibly quicker, so if we get the pace we had today against Mercedes on Sunday it’s going to be a fun race. It is only Friday though so let’s see what they’re doing tomorrow but it’s nice to start the weekend on the right foot.
“I don’t think we’ve got hours and hours of work ahead of us. Just a little bit of fine tuning as always but we don’t have to search for too much at the moment.”
