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Daniel Ricciardo has insisted that he is still upbeat about Red Bull's chances for success during 2017, even though the team's gap to pole position in Russia on Saturday was large.
At this point in the season, Red Bull is the third-quickest team - it trails Mercedes and Ferrari and has so far been unable to mount a serious challenge to their supremacy, but still finds itself well clear of the midfield teams behind. Ricciardo indeed ended qualifying in Sochi 1.7 seconds away from Sebastian Vettel's pole time, but he was still able to achieve his own target of fifth on the grid.
Speaking to the media after the session, Ricciardo said: "I'd rather look at the position than the time. We knew fifth was going to be the highest achievable position in qualifying today, that's what we came into the weekend fighting for, so I'm happy to come out of our little battle with that. I looked at the times and it's a big one (the gap to the front), but we know this circuit is not our strength.
"It's not a nice thing to know, but last year I was about 1.7 seconds off pole, and I'm about 1.8 seconds off pole this year, and in two races we were on pole position. I'm going to stay positive and accept fifth today."
Ricciardo's team-mate Max Verstappen found himself behind the Williams of Felipe Massa on the timesheets, qualifying seventh, and he later complained about a lack of balance in the last sector of the circuit: "It was actually very poor from after Q2," he explained.
"I had two sets of tyres in Q3 but I was already complaining in Q2 that in the last sector I was just losing a lot of grip under braking for Turn 13, losing the rear and overheating the tyres. With the two sets in Q3 it just got worse and worse again. Normally with less fuel in the car you should do better, but I went slower, so that's not the way to go."
Mason Hawker
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
974 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (2)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
They need to make gains and quick
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Quite a bit gap, but then again this isnt really a Red Bull track, nor was China, nor is Canada or Baku. I expect the deficit to be significantly smaller on other tracks.