Saturday: Ricciardo at his best, Vettel unfortunate for Red Bull
If Daniel Ricciardo was once again the best of the rest in qualifying, for Sebastian Vettel the session was cut short due to a problem that stopped him at the very beginning of Q3, relegating him to 10th position.
Daniel Ricciardo (n°3) – 7th and 3rd
The Australian believes his performance was close to perfection, even though the goal is now to close the gap with Mercedes: « Without paying too much attention to the Mercedes, I’m happy with what I’m doing, and today I think it was very good and I wasn’t too disappointed with the lap. I really don’t see how I could have improved more, we are doing our best, but now that we are around the 3rd or 4th place, I want to reduce the gap with the silver cars! »
He doesn’t forget to say a few words to his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, who once again fell victim to a problem: I’m sorry for Seb, he’s having a very tough weekend. I prefer when we are both able to fight.
Ricciardo has a clearly established goal: the podium. « For tomorrow, I think 3rd is the best we can do. If Mercedes continues at this pace, then realistically, we won’t catch them, so 3rd, even if it wouldn’t be a win, would be really satisfying. »
Sebastian Vettel (n°1) – 10th and 10th [15th on the grid]
The German, after an almost blank Friday, couldn’t enjoy his Q3 for long: « I left the garage for Q3 and lost second gear; I still had third and higher, so we thought we could complete the lap with that, but in turn 1, I lost all the other gears, so we couldn’t continue. »
He is frustrated because he thought the second row was likely: « I was more in the rhythm with each lap after missing the [Friday] sessions. It was quite tight between the cars after the Mercedes and I think I could have achieved P3 today. I am, obviously, quite disappointed. »
