Ricciardo: “Red Bull closer to Mercedes”

Daniel Ricciardo said he was confident that Red Bull had reduced the gap to Mercedes in long runs thanks to Renault's progress and new components developed for the RB10.

Ricciardo showed excellent pace in a race simulation in free practice 2: “The team said we did well in the long runs, and from what I understand we did more laps than everyone else with the options” declared the 'Australian.

“This is positive, but we'll see. It will be positive if we manage to make one less stop in the race, we'll see. We are making small improvements. The gap is large so it won't be closed in one race, but we feel we have made up a little more. There is still a large gap but we are getting there. Step by step we will get there, and I hope it won't take too long."