Ricciardo confident of 'very strong race car' this weekend

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A buoyant Daniel Ricciardo was clearly on a roll after topping Friday's afternoon practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

His lap of 1:42.795s was the fastest of the day, narrowly ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. But more significantly, the Australian was over three quarters of a second faster than both Mercedes drivers.

That gave him hopes of winning back-to-back Baku races, as well as a second consecutive race win after triumphing in Shanghai.

"We were quick today,” Ricciardo said. "I feel like I’m driving good - I felt comfortable out there today.

"That’s the important thing with a street circuit," he explained. "You want that comfort in yourself and the car. I didn’t really have any scares today.

“The ultra-soft long run we could have been better but super-soft was good. I think we’re pretty confident."

The Baku street circuit features some of the longest full throttle straights of the season - and also some of the trickiest tight corners. The combination means that no one could hope to find a set-up that works everywhere.

"Our car in the tight stuff is really good. Sector two, I’ve felt comfortable all day,” he said. “That was really strong for us.

“I think we’ll probably lose out a bit more in sector one and three tomorrow. Sector two will be key for us.

Ricciardo and Raikkonen looking racy on the streets of Baku in FP2

“Generally it’s a low-grip circuit so you never expect a perfect car here," he acknowledged. "The balance was pretty normal, pretty good."

Whether it would be enough for a pole or front row grid position was another matter, and depended in part on the conditions.

“Qualifying, I’m still not sure how much the others can go quicker," he said. As always in qualifying, I think the others will turn it up a bit more.

"But even if we don’t qualify on the front row we’ll still have a very strong race car.

“I think there are a few of us who are going to be close - I certainly feel like I’m up there," he added. "We’re still in the group of favourites.

"Only thing that’s going to make the car feel worse is the wind," he suggested. "It gets pretty aggressive over the next two days. But that’s the same for everyone.

"Otherwise we’ll just stay cool, and hopefully be up there all weekend.”

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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.