Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo looking for tyre use edge at Suzuka

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Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo is hoping that tyre management could help to give him a boost in his fight against Williams and Ferrari in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Australian will start Sunday's race from seventh place, but he admitted that he had been hoping for even better.

"I knew top seven was sort of a sure thing but I hoped for top five. In saying that, I thought the lap and the session went well. I don't think we really left much on the table."

He had been on a better lap when his team mate Daniil Kyvat triggered a red flag and a premature end to the session before he could finish his final run.

"Spectacular! Got everyone talking. Obviously it's good he's okay. It's like a silly accident, but it's easy to do," he said of Kvyat's accident.

"We were up around a tenth and a half and I think I could ended the lap two tenths up, but in saying that I think the other guys would have found a bit as well so it probably wouldn't have changed that much."

Ricciardo ended up over nine tenths off the pole time set by Nico Rosberg, and he admitted that Mercedes were once again out of reach of the rest of the field after that strange slump in performance in Singapore.

"We hoped Singapore would last! At the same time if I'd to put money on it then I would have said they'd be first and second so no real surprise.

"I thought Ferrari would have been ahead of Williams so that's probably more of a surprise. I thought we would have been fighting with Williams."

Lacking raw speed, Ricciardo said that he was hoping that the way he was using his tyres at Suzuka might help put him on parity with those teams immediately ahead of him on the grid.

"The biggest challenge for everyone is tyre temperature - probably not so much for wear but keeping the temperature down in the tyres. It's not an easy thing to do, especially around here, you've got so many corners one after another.

"The way I've felt with the car here, the chassis, it's felt underneath me and for that I should have a bit more feeling on the long runs and hopefully a bit more ability to save the tyres than maybe some others.

"I was pretty comfortable on [the prime]. Sure, the option felt better but maybe long runs the prime's good. I know some teams saved two sets of primes - I think Williams was one - so maybe they're looking at probably an option-prime-prime race.

"We'll see. Hopefully whatever we do is quicker than the guys in front of us."

REPORT: Rosberg takes pole after huge Kvyat crash

AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.