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Formula 1 British GP
Ricciardo says Red Bull can fight Ferrari at Silverstone
Daniel Ricciardo reckons Red Bull can fight Ferrari in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, but suggests Mercedes might be out of reach.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Jul 14, 2017, 2:35 PM
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Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton dominated both practice sessions on Friday, while Red Bull's drivers finished behind both Ferraris in the afternoon session.
Max Verstappen was the quickest Red Bull in fifth, less than three tenths behind Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.
Ricciardo, who finished a second off Hamilton's FP2 pace in sixth, reckons Red Bull can be a match for Ferrari this weekend once the Austrian team manages to extract more from its car.
"Mercedes were rapid today, and normally they are quicker in qualifying so we will let them do their thing at the moment," said Ricciardo.
"But I think on one-lap pace we can get Ferrari and that will translate to higher fuel running. I know the feeling with the car is not where it can be, so for sure there is laptime on the table."
He added: "We can definitely improve from where we are. I think we have learned a lot today. In the end we didn't get the right balance or feeling, so we will make some changes tonight and have a better car tomorrow."
While he reckoned the gap to Mercedes is not as big as today suggested, Verstappen admitted Red Bull was not fast enough yet.
"I don't think it [the gap] is 0.6 seconds. It is more that we still need to work. I think they are definitely a bit quicker and we didn't have a great session.
"We still need to work. We are not quick enough. The car balance was not fantastic. It felt a bit better in first practice and we need to understand why.
"I was not really happy in the second practice with the balance of the car, but I think we re a little bit too slow at the moment so we still need to work for sure."
Ricciardo felt Red Bull's form was also hurt by the windy conditions on track.
"I don't think the wind was favouring us today but we still managed to do Copse flat out, so that was fun," he said. "I think we can definitely still find some speed there."
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble
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