Daniel Ricciardo will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix from third on the grid, a position he says he's happy with given his decision to favour race pace over outright qualifying position.
The Australian qualified fourth but is promoted to third after Valtteri Bottas serves his gearbox penalty of five places, and will therefore start behind Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, but ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen.
When asked if he got the maximum on Saturday, Ricciardo replied: "I believe so, I crossed the line and wasn’t shaking my head, I felt like the lap was all I could really get out of it, again it was close with Max, pushing each other in a good way.
"I'm happy to inherit the third because of Bottas’ penalty, hopefully clean side gives me that little bit more that I’m after and can run with the leaders at the beginning."
Although wary of the pace at the front, Ricciardo believes his decision to opt for better race pace will put him in a better position to attack and defend.
"I think the start will dictate a lot, pretty tricky to overtake here, set my car up a bit more for the race and took some downforce off overnight, straights will give me a better chance to attack or defend so gives me a better package for tomorrow."
Discussion about this post