Ricciardo delighted with qualy

Editor

As the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifiers came to a conclusion, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was impressed at the fact that he was able to make it all the way into Q3 on Saturday night.

Ricciardo qualified in an unexpected fifth position ahead of the William's pair of Valteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

"I don't think we expected to be fifth," the smiling Aussie driver explained to f1i.com.

"Yesterday didn't go that well. I'm always a bit hard on myself but I think in general we've had better Fridays.

"This morning wasn't that good either, so we came into qualifying just thinking if it all went well we might squeeze into Q3, but it wasn't looking that realistic.

"We knew that the track would change dramatically because P3 was quite hot as opposed to yesterday it was not that warm in P1, and we knew qualifying was going to be another story.

"We played it cool and thought it might come to us and it did. We had a good rhythm from Q1 all the way through, and I was really happy with how it ended.

"To be fifth now is like a pole because I don't think we're on the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari so it's really good."