Daniel Ricciardo believes it would be “naïve” to discount Ferrari and Mercedes from the fight for pole position, despite Red Bull’s Friday dominance in Mexico.
Ricciardo finished second to Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in both practice sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, as they lapped comfortably quickest.
Verstappen and Ricciardo were both a second clear of third-placed Carlos Sainz Jr. in FP2, as the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers followed close behind the Spaniard.
But Ricciardo says Red Bull cannot discount its rivals from the fight for top honours.
“If it stays like this, then yeah, it’s between us two, but I don’t want to be naïve,” said Ricciardo.
“I’m sure Ferrari and Mercedes will come on strong tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. I hope they don’t, [but] it could be a close six-way fight for pole. I think that would be pretty exciting.
“I think the key to a quick time tomorrow is a clean lap. It’s still quite slippery around here, and it’s easy to make those mistakes, so probably not overdriving will be helpful.”
Ricciardo also cautioned that his Red Bull’s one-lap pace was far stronger than its race simulation runs.
“I was happy with the low-fuel performance, it was much closer to the pace,” he said.
“The high fuel we seemed off the pace. I could feel the car wasn’t quite there but we were still more off the pace than we probably though.
“We’ll work on the high fuel, but the low fuel for now doesn’t seem too bad.”
Ricciardo's session-topping efforts in Monaco in 2016 and 2018 are the only pole positions Red Bull has taken in the hybrid era.
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