Daniel Ricciardo was the surprise package during qualifying in China, with the Australian managing to get through to Q3 for the first time in a year.
He starts seventh after Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg opted not to set flying laps in order to start on the medium compound.
“It’s really nice to be back in Q3; it’s nearly a year ago that I was in the top ten,” he said. “Bahrain was the last time, so it’s good to be back.”
Toro Rosso haven’t had the best start to the season. Ricciardo has qualified 14th and 13th in Australia and Malaysia respectively, but he is yet to finish a race.
His aim this weekend is to score some solid points for the team.
“The first couple of weekends haven’t gone to plan by any means and it’s good for the guys as well, they’ve worked hard on the car to not only make it reliable but also make it quicker. It’s the best of both worlds at the moment and it’s just about putting the session together, that’s how we did it today.
“We’ve started on the right foot; we did a really long run yesterday as well – I think in FP2 we got nearly 40 laps – it’s getting close to race distance and the car was looking good. I don’t want to put the curse on it but we’re definitely going to try and see a chequered flag tomorrow and hopefully in the points as well.”
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