Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has set his sights on challenging the Ferraris at tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix, after a strong qualifying session at Budapest.Infiniti Red Bull Racing have had a dismal season so far, with the four-time championship winning team languishing in fourth place in the standings with 63 points. Qualifying sessions have not yielded stellar results either with both their drivers yet to qualify in the top three.
However, the nature of the Hungaroring Circuit has hidden much of the weaknesses of the RB11-Renault package, allowing Daniel Ricciardo to qualify in fourth place, a few hundredths of a second behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
With a strong grid spot, the Australian is hoping to move up the pack on a track where he recorded his second ever grand prix victory.“I am really happy with the session today and with my qualifying performance,’’ said Ricciardo. “We were very close to Seb which is positive. I found a really good rhythm, obviously we had a few problems yesterday but the weekend as a whole has gone well so far. Our long run pace was pretty handy yesterday so I am confident we can battle it out with the red cars in the race tomorrow. I’m feeling good about it. .”Teammate Daniil Kvyat, in stark contrast, was downbeat after an unimpressive qualifying session where he could only manage the seventh fastest time.“It was tough today, it wasn’t my best qualifying session as I didn’t find a good rhythm. It’s disappointing, we should be stronger at this track. We are starting the race tomorrow from an okay position, hopefully we can move up the grid, it won’t be easy but we’ll try our best,’’ Kvyat was quoted after qualifying.Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that it is difficult to overtake around Hungaroring, but was hoping to put a fight to the two Ferrari.“That was an interesting session for us, as it was extremely close between Daniel and Sebastian, with just a few hundredths between them at the end of Q3. Dany wasn’t so happy with his car, but he can do something tomorrow from the fourth row,’’ said Horner.“Hopefully, we can take the fight to Ferrari with both our drivers, because our long run pace in free practice certainly looked encouraging. Even though it’s meant to be difficult to overtake here, the race often turns out to be exciting, so hopefully the crowd will enjoy a good show tomorrow.”
Edited by Staff Editor