Red Bull completes the top 10 in Malaysia
While Red Bull had managed to stand out in qualifying, they fell back during the race. Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo occupy the last two points positions, one lap behind Sebastian Vettel.
Christian Horner’s men had a difficult afternoon as they were unable to retain their 4th and 5th places secured in qualifying.
Daniel Ricciardo, who started from 4th position, had high hopes but nothing went as planned: « A really frustrating race. I was ready for the fight and was hoping for something special. But it was written that it would not be the case! I had contact on the first lap, which hurt us. Then we had a few problems throughout the race. We needed a lot of time to overtake cars because we weren’t fast enough and had brake issues, which didn’t make our afternoon easy. »
Similar sentiment from Daniil Kvyat, who still managed to get the better of his teammate despite his clash with Nico Hülkenberg’s Force India: « We made the most of the situation today. We lacked pace, and we need to catch up. I’m confident that the team can do it. It’s a challenge, but we must be mentally strong. Fighting for 9th and 10th places is not what we want. We suffered today, and we need to work on understanding why. »
As for Christian Horner, he acknowledges that his pair of drivers couldn’t do much more with the car at their disposal. He nevertheless highlighted the victory of his former protégé: « Sebastian had an incredible race. Congratulations to him and to Ferrari. Hopefully, we can soon make things a little more difficult for them. »
