F1 | Renault, Daniel Ricciardo: “Our pace is better than the ranking says”

Typhoon Hagibis had been hanging over the Suzuka circuit for days now and, just before the first free practice, the race direction announced the postponement of Saturday's qualifying sessions to Sunday morning, 3am Italian time.

This complicates the situation, not only because of the work concentrated in today's two sessions, but also because the official tests are still in doubt: the starting grid could coincide with the outcome of FP2.

Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo they hope that the qualifications will take place: in fact, they classified thirteenth and fourteenth respectively in Free Practice 1 and eighteenth and seventeenth in the afternoon. Not an ideal position for the starting grid. The two drivers of the French team, despite having encountered some initial problems, managed to find the right set-up for the RS19 and are confident for the challenging day on Sunday.

"It was a difficult Friday for us. We made some changes between sessions and they seem to have been positive” said Nico Hulkenberg.

"We had some grip problems, especially in the first sector, but we managed to resolve them. The times are not strictly representative, we cannot make a comparison with others. Due to the arrival of the typhoon we will have the day off tomorrow, but we will make the most of it by analyzing everything in detail to be ready to leave immediately on Sunday".

The always smiling man, however, is more confident Daniel Ricardo.

"Our goal was to clock up as many kilometers as possible – declared the Australian at the end of the day – knowing that we won't be able to shoot tomorrow. After a difficult morning we managed to improve the car in the afternoon, we made some good progress. We focused on the race pace and then on the flying lap towards the end of the second free practice."

“Unfortunately, both low-fuel laps were compromised by traffic, our pace is better than the standings say, and I don't think we're that far from where we want to be. We hope to have a good qualifying and secure a good placing for Sunday's race."