Daniel Ricciardo ‘drawing confidence’ from strong Friday after P3 in F1 practice

Daniel Ricciardo says he's 'drawing confidence' from his strong showing in Friday Formula 1 practice for the Russian Grand Prix after ending it in third place.

Ricciardo was once again on top form in Friday practice, ending the second session best of the rest behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Despite ending the day in third, Ricciardo isn’t getting carried away and expects it to be a lot closer come qualifying.

“We keep on setting the timesheets alight on Friday, so it’s nice to see us high up again today,” Ricciardo said. “It’s a circuit I’ve not had too much success or confidence on before, so it definitely gives me a boost. I learnt a lot and showed strong pace in every run.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think it’ll be a lot closer, especially between us and the teams that are about two to three tenths behind, so I think qualifying will be tightly contested. But I draw a lot of confidence from today and we’ll look to string it all together for the rest of the weekend.”

Ocon once again struggled to match the pace of his teammate as he trailed the Australian by 0.6s.

The Frenchman is still sure “there’s more to come”. 

“I think it was a pretty decent Friday,” Ocon added. “We tested a lot of things that now we have to put together tomorrow, so I think we’re in a good position. We didn’t quite find the sweet spot with the car so there’s more to come from us.

“We can see the performance is there. That’s positive and up to us now to do the magic tomorrow. There’s not one sector that stands out as all the corners here are quite similar and we’re looking consistent. We know what to do tomorrow.”