Red Bull to aim for top 5 finish in Sochi
On a circuit that doesn't necessarily match the strengths of its single-seater, Red Bull can be satisfied with Daniel Ricciardo in 5th place on the grid. Daniil Kvyat will start 8th in front of his home crowd.
Daniel Ricciardo is among the beneficiaries of Sebastian Vettel’s penalty. Even though he only recorded the 6th fastest time in the session, he will start from the 5th spot on the grid. Enough to enhance the legendary smile of the Australian: “We gained a position with Seb’s penalty. So starting 5th isn’t too bad and we’re only a tenth off Felipe. So we’re very close.”
The Williams will therefore be Daniel Ricciardo’s main target, even though he will have to defend against the return of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton: « We are obviously very far from the Mercedes but we expected that. If we can fight with the Williams tomorrow, that would be good. »
He knows he won’t necessarily be able to rely on strategy since the low tire degradation should lead everyone to make only one stop: « We don’t have an advantage here because it’s a stop for everyone. Everyone will be pushing with the tires, and it will be flat out for most of the race. We won’t be able to do much with the strategy. If we finish in the top 5, that would be a very good result for us. »
For his national Grand Prix, Daniil Kvyat was unable to raise his game level in qualifying to beat his teammate. He thus has to settle for 8th place on the grid: « Our lap times throughout the session were consistent, which is a good thing. I thought we could find a little something extra for Q3 but, unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do a warm-up lap. So I went straight into an attack lap with slightly cold tires. This caused understeer and cost us a few tenths. But I’m overall happy with our qualifying on a track that is difficult for us. »
