MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 03: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) Visa Cash App RB VCARB 01 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 03, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202405030613 // Usage for editorial use only //
Visa Cash App RB team pilots’ statements after Friday practice and sprint qualifying
DANIEL RICCIARDO #3
FP1 – BEST LAP: 1:29.178, 11TH, 27 LAPS
SPRINT QUALIFICATION – BEST LAP: (SQ1) 1:28.700, (SQ2) 1:28.122, (SQ3) 1:28.044, 4TH PLACE
“I feel really good about today, I have good confidence in the car and the second row is amazing! The team brought updates to the last few races, replaced my chassis in the previous race in China and brought a new floor here in Miami. It looks like things are turning around and I’m very proud of what the team and I accomplished today. We had a good qualifying from the first part, although I made a mistake in the first lap, so we got under a bit of pressure. Then I did a good lap and we started to improve from the second part. I’m a little surprised to be in fourth place with my bike because I expected to be much faster on the soft compound. Instead, the soft tires didn’t give much more compared to the medium ones. I touched the wall twice; I told the team I was definitely trying to get everything out of it. We’ll see what happens in the sprint, but it’s much nicer to be on the front row. This can definitely help to stay cleaner in the first stage of the race. I’d like to get some points tomorrow.”
YUKI TSUNODA #22
FP – BEST LAP: 1:29.056, 8TH POSITION, 25 LAPS
SPRINT QUALIFYING – BEST LAP: (SQ1) 1:28.687, (SQ2) DNF – LAP TIME DELETED, POS. 15.
“The first part of qualifying was good, so the car was there, but in the end we weren’t able to maximize the performance. We tried one push but it didn’t work. I also couldn’t put it all together. Looking back, maybe two pressures would have worked better for us, but the speed the car showed gives me confidence for the rest of the weekend.”
ALAN PERMANE (RACE DIRECTOR)
“Obviously it was an amazing session for us and Daniel; Really, really satisfied. Right from the first laps, the car behaved well. We’ve got the upgraded floor working as expected so it gave Daniel the confidence to push the car hard on this tricky track with walls all around, resulting in fourth place on the grid for tomorrow’s sprint. We need to look at it in depth and understand what happened to Yuki in SQ2 because there he was, happy all day and confident in the car. He was very confident after his runs in SQ1 and said he wanted to do one timed lap in SQ2 and that was the right thing to do. It didn’t come together, but we’re going to dive deep into everything to try and figure it out. It’s the start of the weekend, so we have plenty of other opportunities to get him ahead.”
Source: Visa Cash App RB
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