'Fifth place feels like pole for me', says Ricciardo

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo deemed himself very happy with P5 in qualifying after doubting his RB12 had the pace and balance to take him into Q3.

The Aussie was all smiles after a Q3 effort which once again produced for Red Bull Racing a result which was in stark contrast to team mate's Daniil Kvyat's lacklustre performance.

"I don't think we expected to be fifth," admitted Ricciardo.

"Yesterday didn't go that well. I'm always a bit hard on myself but I think in general we've had better Fridays.

"This morning wasn't that good either, so we came into qualifying just thinking if it all went well we might squeeze into Q3, but it wasn't looking that realistic.

"We knew that the track would change dramatically because P3 was quite hot as opposed to yesterday it was not that warm in P1, and we knew qualifying was going to be another story.

"We played it cool and thought it might come to us and it did. We had a good rhythm from Q1 all the way through, and I was really happy with how it ended.

"To be fifth now is like a pole because I don't think we're on the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari so it's really good."

Having established an edge over Williams, Ricciardo believes he can maintain his advantage into tomorrow's race.

"I didn't expect to beat them [Williams] on one lap performance, and we're 3 tenths in front which is a good little margin to have.

"I don’t expect to have it easy keeping them behind, but if we do take off and stay in fifth and keep them behind we will stay there, and hopefully the red and silver cars, I am sure that they will get further ahead but hopefully not too far ahead.

"It's weird to be this happy for a fifth place but once again, considering how the weekend had gone until now I think we should be really happy."

REPORT: Hamilton pips Rosberg to Bahrain pole by 0.077s

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

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