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Daniel Ricciardo is hoping that a different tyre strategy will allow him to take home a strong result from the Australian Grand Prix. The local hero will start the race on the super soft tyres, while the competitors around him will use the ultra softs in the first stint.
The different strategy means that the 28-year-old can run for longer in the first phase of the race, which will give him fresher tyres in the second portion. Ricciardo's race will be slightly compromised from the get-go, as he serves a three-place grid penalty.
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The five-time Grand Prix winner will line-up in eighth place, behind Nico Hulkenberg and the Haas duo. With overtaking being quite difficult around Albert Park, Ricciardo is looking to his differing strategy to boost him up the order: "Even with the extra DRS zone I don’t think it is going to be easy. We felt that maybe a one-stop could be a stretch with the ultra soft.
"That is why we have gone with the super soft, just to try and make sure we can do a one-stop because even on a quicker tyre a two-stop in traffic you are still going to struggle a bit. Hopefully we get a one-stop and the others suffer and have to do a two, and that would be where we celebrate!"
Lewis Hamilton will start the 2018 season opener from pole position after storming to the top spot on Saturday. The Briton's fastest time was over half a second clear of second-placed Kimi Raikkonen, but Ricciardo has given a lot of credit to the Mercedes W09.
"Lewis is very good,” he said. "But the car and their package is too good, absolutely. It is not to discredit Lewis, not at all, but I think even him at 90% with that package that they had today, he still would have got pole. I feel any of us top guys could've made that happen [in a Mercedes]."
Fergal Walsh
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