Saturday at Interlagos: Red Bull between the Ferraris
The two Red Bull drivers didn't manage to close the gap on the Mercedes and were even edged out by Scuderia Ferrari, taking 4th and 6th positions on the grid, with Max Verstappen in a better position than Daniel Ricciardo. But the two Milton Keynes team-mates won't be going away beaten, and are hoping for an interesting race accompanied by rain.
Max Verstappen lined up his car on the second row alongside Kimi Räikkönen. However, this result was not up to his expectations. The Dutchman was disappointed with his last lap in Q3, which could have potentially placed him higher. He recounts his day: « I was a bit disappointed with my last lap. I expected someone to get ahead of me, so seeing Kimi in front wasn’t a surprise. It was a weird session, in Q1 and Q2 I felt good but then I wasn’t happy with the grip from the new set of tires I put on. We need to look into this issue, as the rear seemed to slide in the second sector. We are going to analyze that and try to understand why. We finished very close to third position, which is the best we could hope for in dry conditions like today. It’s ultimately a pretty good result. We are sandwiched between the two Ferraris, which means we’ll have a fun race tomorrow, especially if the weather changes. »
Despite it not being a perfect lap the 2nd row is a great position to start #BrazilGP. Some rain during the race would be fun! #keeppushing pic.twitter.com/lRLRbuIiAO
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) 12 novembre 2016
Similarly for Daniel Ricciardo, his feelings were mixed after this qualifying session which he finished in 6th place: « I felt that we had made progress between Q1 and Q2, and then in Q3, I was a bit disappointed with my lap. It’s a difficult circuit and quite a short track, so if you make a mistake in one corner, it’s very hard to make up time. I had a good first sector, but I was probably too conservative in some corners where I was trying not to make mistakes. »
Nevertheless, the Australian was already looking ahead to the race, hoping for an exciting experience given the tight gaps with Ferrari in particular. He hopes for the arrival of rain, which has a higher probability of falling during the race.
« We knew it would be tight in qualifying with Ferrari in these conditions. It was very close, and I think that’s what makes it frustrating. But I will learn from this and hope we can have a good race. It’s fun when the gaps are so small, but not when you’re the last in the group. The weather forecast throughout the week indicated that Sunday would be the day with the highest chance of rain. I hope this will be the case to spice up the race. If it is, we will try to make things interesting for everyone and give the fans the opportunity to see a great race. »
Qualified 6th. Pretty close to 3rd so a little bummed I didn’t find that last bit of speed. Rain tomorrow should spice it up ☔
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) 12 novembre 2016
