Ricciardo thinks Williams beatable in the race

The Australian, one of the stars of the previous race in China, had to settle for the sixth-fastest time, but will start from fifth after Sebastian Vettel gets his penalty.

While Red Bull has been unable to match its Chinese GP performance due to the nature of the Sochi circuit, Ricciardo says the team cannot be discouraged.

Although he qualified behind Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, he reckons they are still beatable.

"I think generally we are not to discourage with qualifying," said Ricciardo. "I think we did quite well. We are pretty close to Felipe. It would have been nice to jump him of course but we are there or thereabouts where we need to be.

"We can race Williams from there, I think that's the overall target.

"I think if we can somehow get in front of them then maybe we can keep them behind."

He added: "In terms of moving forward, I think the target has to be Williams. If Lewis starts 10th then I expect him to come through and Vettel will be hard to keep off

"If we can sort of move ahead of Williams I think that would be really good. How can that happen I think if not at the start you have to try and probably do something brave with strategy and stop really late or really early. There's not much else you can do."

Speaking about why Red Bull was unable to match the pace shown in previous races, Ricciardo said: "It's a combination. The corners are not slow but Williams for example are a bit more comfortable and they can keep their momentum with the power they have, they can sort of use it.

"I think where Williams struggles more with tight corners. I guess it's a power circuit it's low grip and there's not much tyre deg."