Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo says he was “surprised” to split the Ferrari drivers during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Red Bull RB13 has been firmly the third-quickest car on this year’s grid, lagging behind rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, across the opening two rounds of the season.
The team was a little off the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari during Friday practice in Bahrain, but Max Verstappen was fastest in FP3.
Ricciardo thought a spot on the second row of the grid could have been possible in qualifying, but only if everything went smoothly.
He ended up splitting the Ferrari drivers in Q3 to secure fourth on the grid, a better result than he expected.
“It’s been a good and positive day today,” he said. “We didn’t expect much to change from China to here but now we’re a lot closer to pole than we were a week ago so we’ll take that.
“To be on the second row and to get ahead of a Ferrari is a good surprise. We kind of thought if we put everything together then there might be a chance of a second row and we got it.
“We’re learning and are getting a bit more out of the car as well which is great to see. If tomorrow Mercedes and Ferrari run into some tyre degradation maybe we can have a bit of a go.
“But the aim now is to try and maintain this gap in the race and stay within half a second or second each lap and to replicate our pace during qualifying in the long runs.”
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