Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo keen to close gap to front

Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull needs to be focusing on closing the gap to Mercedes but was pleased to beat Williams in Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying.

With Red Bull struggling so much during the Australian Grand Prix, Ricciardo says the team has made clear progress as he was able to qualify fourth in Malaysia. However, with the top three cars covered by less than 0.4s but Ricciardo and team-mate Daniil Kvyat over 1.7s off pole position he says the gap to the front remains disappointing.

"We've definitely made some progress since Melbourne," Ricciardo said. "We would like to be closer to the guys in front, but in saying that we're ahead of the Williams, and that's a positive. Bit by bit, we'll get closer."

Ricciardo also believes the weather had a hand in improving his grid position by at least one spot.

"Fourth was definitely the best we could have done, we probably would have been fifth if it had been dry. It's positive in the wet at least and I think we'll have some fun tomorrow as tyre degradation is going to be massive. It's probably going to be a three-stop race so we'll have to hang on."

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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.