Daniel Ricciardo has stated that Red Bull still has pace to find in order to optimise their race pace, following Friday practice ahead of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix.
Ricciardo topped the timesheet in FP2, edging Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by 0.131 seconds. Ricciardo’s team-mate Max Verstappen ended the day third.
Red Bull’s race pace also seemed comparable to Mercedes’ times. However, Ricciardo has admitted that the team has time to find in order to maximise their chances for victory on Sunday.
“It’s always nice when you top a session,” Ricciardo stated. “We’ve been chipping away at it – we’ve made some progress but there is still a bit more.
“On long runs we can still find some pace, on low fuel we are more or less there.
“We know Mercedes always have more on Saturday, so I think we still need to find a few tenths if we want to stay ahead of them tomorrow. But, not a bad Friday.”
The top six were separated by less than half a second in FP2. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all appear to be competitive this weekend.
Ricciardo added, “I think that for these last three races it’s going to be pretty close between the top three teams.”
After retiring from last weekend’s US Grand Prix, suspicions had surfaced that Ricciardo may have faced a power unit change and subsequent grid penalty in Mexico.
Ricciardo, however, downplayed the speculation; “As long as she keeps ticking over then we’ll be fine.”
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