Saturday: Daniel Ricciardo beats Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo beat his illustrious teammate in qualifying, who failed to advance to Q3. Nevertheless, the Australian will have to start behind Sebastian Vettel as he faces a ten-place penalty due to his pit stop in Malaysia.
Daniel Ricciardo (No. 3) – 13th and 3rd [13th on the grid]
The man with the eternal smile once again lived up to his nickname after the Bahrain Grand Prix qualifiers. Indeed, it was a very impressive performance by the Australian as he is the only driver without a Mercedes engine in the top 5 of the qualifiers. He is even the only Renault engine in the top 10 but will have to fight his way up from 13th place on the grid: « Today was good, tomorrow will be less enjoyable due to the ten-place penalty but I am very happy with the qualifications. I think through all the stints and with both types of tires, I was happy with my performance. »
Daniel Ricciardo was also able to be economical with his tires, which could prove crucial at the end of the race: « We may have saved a set of tires compared to the others. We might need it tomorrow to move up the field. I did my best, so I’m happy. »
Sebastian Vettel (no. 1) – 21st and 11th [10th on the grid]
The four-time world champion made a mistake during the third free practice session, which caused damage to his car. In the end, he failed to make it to Q3, just like in Australia: « We weren’t fast enough today. I was quite happy yesterday but I think FP3 didn’t help us when I spun and damaged the car. It’s hard to say if it had a big impact because when you start qualifying, you put your head down and try to do your best. It was quite close with Kimi (Räikkönen) and we narrowly missed Q3, but that’s life. »
The objective is therefore clearly different compared to last year, where he dominated the competition. Now it will be to try to overtake a few cars in order to score good points, even if it will not be easy: « We have an extra set of tires for tomorrow. I think in the race things will calm down, and we can be a bit more consistent and push to get good points. I think our pace is good on long stints and even on short stints as Dan has shown. It will be tough to overtake a few cars tomorrow, but we will do our best. »
