Exciting qualifying for Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo at Melbourne
Daniel Ricciardo on firs row, while World Champion Sebastian Vettel suffered technical issues, placing his RB10 in P12 for tomorrow's starting grid.
Photo by: XPB Images
Daniel Ricciardo, Position: 2, (3rd Practice – P5, 1:30.970)
Sebastian Vettel, Position: 13, (3rd Practice – P12, 1:32.255)
“I think we have made a big step forward with the car, but of course I’m not happy that we didn’t make it to Q3. I think the car is quick, but we struggled this afternoon with drivability which, in these conditions, made it even worse. The car seems good and Daniel did a very good job to be on the front row, so congratulations to him. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow and reliability will be the most important thing to make it to the flag, but I think there will be lots of opportunities for us.”
Christian Horner: “It was unbelievable for Dan today. He’s been so relaxed all weekend. He was on fire though all three qualifying sessions and all credit to him starting his home race and his debut race for us on the front row of the grid. It was unlucky for Seb. His engine software meant he was down on power with extremely poor drivability and we need to understand that, as it compromised his qualifying, but we’re really pleased for Dan. The car’s good – our weakness is on the straights and in the wet you can’t go so fast on the straights, so we’ve got to work on that. To start on the front row tomorrow is unexpected, it was a tremendous performance.”
Thierry Savli: “After a very difficult winter we did not expect to be on the front row, so this is a great result for the entire team at Milton Keynes and Viry. Managing the Power Units, the state of charge and energy management in pressured and changing weather conditions is no mean feat, and everyone did a great job today. Unfortunately Sebastian was down on power, as we got a faulty sensor reading. This ultimately did not reflect the improved performance of the car, but we’ll do our best in the race tomorrow.”
Infiniti Red Bull Racing
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