Australian won't have to take an penalty after engine failure
Monday 27 July 2015 14:20, UK
Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed he will not have to take a grid penalty after his engine blew at the end of Practice Two for the Hungarian GP.
The Australian finished the session just behind Red Bull team-mate Daniil Kvyat in a nosebleed-inducing third position in the timesheets – a rare bright light in what has otherwise been a gloomy year for the former world champions.
And with Ricciardo quashing any concerns about the smokey demise of his Renault engine causing another grid penalty to follow the one he had in Austria, the three-time race winner is confident that Red Bull can be ‘the best of the rest’ behind Mercedes this weekend.
“It’s the old engine, not the engine l will be using on Saturday and for the race so I will not need to take a penalty,” said Ricciardo. “It was a tired old power unit.
“At the time my engineer was telling me l was the fastest driver on the track with the soft tyres and when it stopped l joked that l had been driving too fast!”
Asked to explain Red Bull’s unexpected resurgence up the timesheets ahead of Nico Rosberg, both Williams cars and the two Ferraris, Ricciardo added: “We have a few updates here and we know the circuit suits our car more than the other ones we’ve been to this year. Dany and I are happy with the car, the long run looked good so it was a good day.
“There was nothing really major changed, we just got the balance right, we didn’t change the car much and when we rolled out the car this morning it immediately felt like we were in the ball park.
"There is a little bit more power at our disposal, and a bit through the fuel as well, which is nice because every little helps. It felt good to lean on it a bit."
However, Ricciardo isn’t expecting the Red Bulls to be in position to challenge Mercedes when the race weekend begins in earnest.
“I expect Rosberg to get back in front of us but I hope we can stay where we are and if we can be the second-best team then that would be really positive.
“I’m sure we are not half a second in front of Ferrari but if we are a tenth in front tomorrow then l will take that.”
