1
The two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have ruled out a pole position challenge on Saturday after seeing the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari throughout Friday practice.
The energy drink squad topped the opening session on Friday morning, with Verstappen leading Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by 0.049. However in the afternoon, the team fell over three-tenths behind Mercedes and Ferrari who remained tightly matched at the front.
With the two championship contending teams set to turn up their engines on Saturday, Ricciardo says that Red Bull's chances lie in the race: "Pole is probably a bit of a stretch in these conditions. I think this afternoon we had a decent car and we are three tenths off so it’s a bit much.
“It’s likely that the others will turn [it] up tomorrow, so pole is probably a bit of a stretch but the race pace seemed solid. All three tyres don’t seem that bad to start the race on so we will try to do something different on Sunday,” the Australian added.
After coming out on top after free practice one, Verstappen had to wait longer for his second session to get underway. The oil tower in front of the engine cracked and began leaking oil, delaying the Dutchman's track time.
However like his teammate, Verstappen is not expecting to be near Mercedes and Ferrari on Saturday: “Straight away I was actually quite happy with the car, I think that showed in the first practice that we had a good car balance,” the 21-year-old explained.
“It’s just a shame in second practice that I missed the beginning - then you are a bit out of sync and you have to go a little bit through your programme and I had traffic on my Supersoft run, which is not ideal," Verstappen continued.
"But anyway I don’t think we are going to fight for pole position. As soon as they open their engines in Q3 we are struggling. The car is in a good window and in the long runs I’m quite happy. There are a few things to improve but I am quite confident that we can fix that.”
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
724,146 comments on Red Bull Racing
965 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Max Verstappen
483,788 comments on Ferrari 279 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Ferrari
Replies (1)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Not with a straight like this one, and with Ric's 5 grid place penalty, no. But this is just another reason for why the current and very stupid 3 engine rule can go and "serve cake" to a landline telephone. Ric gets penalized for a marshall putting out a smoking engine, he gets penalized for another fella doing his job. How stupid isnt that?