Daniel Ricciardo is confident that Aston Martin Red Bull Racing have brought a good car to the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix after a strong pair of practice sessions on Friday.
The Australian topped the timesheets in first practice but slipped back to fifth in the standings in second practice later in the evening.
“Overall it wasn’t a bad day,” said Ricciardo. “Obviously, this morning was pretty strong but the evening session was not as good; we made some changes that didn’t work as well as we hoped.
“I don’t want to go back to the Practice One car as I think we can still make it better. We can find a happy medium on the balance and the overall feeling is not too bad. I don’t think the position this evening is too important.
“I got traffic on the first lap, so I had to go for the second lap, and for sure I lost a bit of lap time there.”
Despite the strong showing so far, Ricciardo is well aware of the threat of Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport.
“Mercedes will still turn it up in Qualifying but we will be closer than where we were tonight,” said the Australian. “I’m confident that we will have a good car and tomorrow I’m sure we can be better than sixth and hopefully even better again in the race.”
Ricciardo failed to get a clean lap in second practice due to being held up by Valtteri Bottas but the Australian has made his feelings clear that he doesn’t want the Finn to receive a penalty.
“I also just want to say that I don’t want Valtteri to get a penalty,” said Ricciardo. “This is Practice and it’s frustrating but I don’t think anyone agreed with my penalty last week and I don’t want to start that game. I believe he wasn’t told on the radio, so it’s probably not his fault.”
