Ricciardo expects 'a mixed bag' in qualifying

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Daniel Ricciardo says the low grip conditions at the Mexican Grand Prix are likely to see "a mixed bag" in qualifying on Saturday.

Sebastian Vettel set the pace in FP2 as seven different teams were represented in the top ten, with Ricciardo fifth quickest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India. Hulkenberg set his best time on the soft tyre as a number of drivers struggled with low grip and Ricciardo believes it will result in an unpredictable qualifying session.

REPORT: Vettel edges Hamilton by 0.004s in FP2

"We’ll see, to be honest the supersoft today was pretty... not a great tyre for the long runs, it wasn’t lasting very long," Ricciardo said. "I don’t know how the others got on but I believe everyone had a few problems with that tyre, it’ll be interesting. I think tomorrow in qualifying you might see a mixed bag again.

"I think [grip] will get better, to be honest today I expected the grip to be higher, after a year and the WEC came here and other categories, I thought the track would have rubbered in a bit, but it’s still very slippery so it might take a bit more time.

"I think by the end of the weekend on Sunday the last half of the race will be better, but I think we’re going to be fighting the balance from now until the end, it’s just trying to get comfortable with a slippery sort of feeling on track. I think we improved today, there’s still more we can find and we’ll keep working at it."

And Ricciardo says there were still positives for Red Bull to take from Friday's running despite being slower than both Mercedes and Ferrari.

"Reliability and everything for that today was pretty good, we did a lot of laps which was positive, we still want to find some more speed, it wasn’t the perfect day for wheel performance but I think we definitely run a lot so it gives us something to look forward to."

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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.