Daniel Ricciardo described Friday at the Chinese Grand Prix as “a little bit mixed” despite a solid showing in the Renault F1 Team.
The Australian who won at the Shanghai International Circuit 12 months ago was sixth fastest in Free Practice 1 before slipping behind Renault team-mate Nico Hülkenberg and dropping to ninth in Free Practice 2.
Ricciardo felt the morning went well and evidenced by his lofty finishing position in the session.
“It wasn’t a bad day for us, if a little bit mixed.
“We got out the gates well this morning and it seemed quite positive in the car.”
The afternoon session saw the Aussie try different set-ups with the Renault and he feels there is still work to be done ahead of the weekend.
“This afternoon we tried a few things with balance.
“I felt we were closer to what we wanted in the morning, so we have a few things to work on and figure out ahead of tomorrow.”
Ricciardo is yet to reach the third and final part of qualifying for his new team but is hopeful that the one lap pace will be good enough to change that tomorrow.
“Our short run pace looks like it belongs inside the top ten, so tomorrow will be about piecing everything together and extracting some good one-lap pace.”
