Red Bull yet to show full pace - Ricciardo

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Daniel Ricciardo expects Red Bull will be closer to Mercedes and Ferrari on Saturday as it has yet to show its full pace during practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the opening two practice sessions on Friday, with Sebastian Vettel second quickest in FP2, 0.25s adrift of Hamilton. The two Red Bull drivers were around a second off the pace in fifth and sixth - with Max Verstappen marginally quicker - but Ricciardo expects to be closer to the front two teams in qualifying.

"We did not run in qualifying mode yet, so there is still more to come from it tomorrow," Ricciardo said. "But so far it seems okay, but tomorrow we will see a bit more of a step. With that we should be closer than a second behind the Mercedes. Hopefully we can gain a big chunk. I think it will put us a lot closer to the Ferraris."

While expecting more from the car, Ricciardo admits he can deliver more lap time himself as well.

"I don’t think we did the perfect lap today, so I expect to get a bit more from me and a bit more from the set-up tomorrow and that should put us a lot closer to the Ferraris and Mercedes.

"Let’s see tomorrow, they had a good buffer on us today, but we have a bit more to come from all areas, so if we are within half a second that would be decent enough. And then you never know what happens in the race."

Ricciardo also says he was glad to get back behind the wheel after the frustrations of losing out at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"I had a good knock on the wall probably my third or fourth lap today, so I was still probably letting off some steam. I was okay and definitely happy to be back behind the wheel of the car, and I have always enjoyed driving around here.

"It is definitely a lot of fun pushing the limits and jumping the kerbs. I don’t think we quote got everything out of it today, but that is Friday, we are learning, and if we put in the right work tonight we will be pretty close to Ferrari. With the right lap we can be ahead of them."

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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.