Red Bull and Ferrari face off in Japan

Behind the untouchable Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are neck and neck. The Milton Keynes team recently achieved a double in the Malaysian Grand Prix, allowing them to extend their lead in the Constructors’ Championship. However, both drivers couldn’t hide a certain disappointment after being outperformed by the men in red during the timed lap exercise.

Thus, Max Verstappen had to settle for the 5th fastest time, which will be converted into a 4th place on the grid thanks to Sebastian Vettel’s penalty, as his car was unable to showcase its usual qualities: « It’s not such a bad result in qualifying, but I think the whole team expected a little better. We wanted to be ahead of the Ferraris. We were very close, but the balance of our car wasn’t optimal. In low-speed corners where we are usually very strong, it didn’t necessarily work today. »

For Daniel Ricciardo, it is actually in the high-speed sections that the gap increased, due to the power differential between his Renault engine and that of the competition. Tire management was also not optimal: “It’s a bit frustrating because we are losing time on the straights and we need to understand why. I feel like I gave it everything and I think the lap as such was okay. In the last lap, I think I could have done a little better in sector 1 but I felt that it damaged my tires for the last part of the lap.”

By being on the lookout, just behind Kimi Räikkönen, both drivers expect to be able to fight for at least another podium. For the Australian, it is even possible to aim a little higher because he expects Mercedes not to exploit all the available power: « I’m happy with our pace on the long runs, which should be close to Ferrari’s. We expect them to be our real rivals for the race. We also expect Mercedes to be conservative and reduce their engine power during the race. We’ll see what happens. »