Ricciardo: 'It's my decision to start on soft tyres'

Daniel Ricciardo said that it had been his call to ensure he will be starting tomorrow's Belgian Grand prix on soft compound tyres, rather than the supersofts that his team mate Max Verstappen will be using on the grid.

"Max wanted the supersofts to start the race, and I wanted the softs, so it was easy," Ricciardo said after qualifying.

"The team talked about maybe doing two different strategies, and then they asked us what we wanted to do, and we both wanted to do different strategies, so it’s a good scenario for us.

"Obviously Max thinks his one will work, I think mine will work."

The choice of compound is determined by the tyres used to set the driver's best lap in Q2. Ricciardo's decision was the same one as polewinner Nico Rosberg and both Ferrari drivers, but the rest of the top ten will all begin the race on the nominally faster but much shorter-lived supersofts.

"Rosberg and both Ferraris think the soft is the better tyre to start the race. I just think the super soft is a bit more inconclusive, and it can work, but if it doesn’t it can lose you quite a bit of lap time.

"There is some blistering and some things happening with the tyres, which you can’t quite predict. So for me the soft was a little bit of a safer option. And that is why we have gone for that."

The decision to stick on soft tyres in Q2 was not without its risks, however, and meant that Ricciardo came within two tenths of missing out on making it through to Q3. In the end he had to settle for fifth place on the grid, several places back from his team mate on the front row.

"I am not that disappointed with qualifying," he insisted. "I’d be more disappointed if I didn’t make the softs work in Q2. Because we just got through with that, that was what I wanted to do.

"Of course better than fifth would have been nice, but fifth is still - if we are quick we can definitely still do something from there. It is where I started two years ago, so it can work if you are quick enough."

One thing Ricciardo doesn't expect tomorrow is to be passed on track at any point by Lewis Hamilton, who is starting dead last because of an accumulation of engine change penalties.

"I think if we have a clean race and we don’t get held up by anyone that shouldn’t be in front of us, we won’t see him in the mirrors. If we race our quickest race we won’t see him. I’m sure he’s going to come through, I think if us top five do what we have to do I don’t think he’ll quite catch up with us."

QUALIFYING REPORT: Rosberg edges Verstappen and Raikkonen for pole

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Romain Grosjean column: More motivated than ever

Chris Medland's 2016 Belgian Grand Prix preview

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