Formula 1

Daniel Ricciardo upbeat after 'good day' in Baku

Published Jun. 23, 2017 3:56 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Daniel Ricciardo backed up Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen’s good form in Baku by taking third place in FP2, and the Australian is confident that the team will be in the fight for the rest of the weekend.

“Practice was good today,” said Ricciardo. “Like always we will try not to celebrate on a Friday, but nonetheless we seem to be in the ballpark. It is close with Mercedes, Ferrari and also Force India and Williams aren’t too far, so it looks pretty competitive out there, and it was fun. This afternoon’s session was a lot more entertaining, the grip was coming, and you could really start to push the car.

“This track is difficult. Most of us run pretty low downforce so the street circuit is slippery, we have low grip on the car and the corners are tight so there isn’t much room for errors, so it is a pretty high risk circuit in terms of mistakes. But that makes it really challenging, and when you are able to put in a good lap you feel you cross the finish line and you can smile. It is not easy around here, and it is fun. Today was a good day obviously for myself and Max and hopefully tomorrow we can stay at the front where we are.”

Ricciardo said there was more to come from his side, as well as from the car.

“It is a tough one because we know it is likely Mercedes/Ferrari will bring a bit more heat tomorrow but at the same time you look at Max, he is first and I am third, we are right there so you don’t want to go crazy and chase too much because we are obviously in the ballpark. Minor changes tonight, more with us – the track you can get a lot of yourself here, so a few improvements from myself and hopefully we will be there.”

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