Daniel Ricciardo says he shouldn’t set his expecations too high during the early stages of his Formula 1 career, with the Red Bull-backed Australian preparing to start his first ever Grand Prix from the back of the grid. The Hispania driver has demonstrated encouraging pace at Silverstone so far this weekend, stating that his next target is to get to 'within a few tenths' of experienced team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi.
"My first qualifying session was alright but it was a bit frustrating with the weather, we couldn’t do two runs so we were just limited to one but it was ok," Ricciardo explained after Saturday afternoon's qualifying session.
"I would like to be a little bit closer to the rest of the field but I can’t try to expect too much for now, it’s a big learning curve. I’m half a second off Tonio which isn’t much but for a racing car driver it is quite a lot, I want more but I shouldn’t really expect too much at this stage, if I can keep closing the gap then it’s okay.
"I expect to finish the race and be competitive, if I can maybe close the gap in the race and be within a few tenths of Tonio, I think that would be a positive start and some progress. If we can get ahead of a few other cars then that would be a good result."
Liuzzi, who starts the race from 23rd, added his feelings: "It was a difficult qualifying session because of the weather but also because we’ve had an issue with the car since yesterday. It hasn’t been easy, we didn’t have the best balance for qualifying but, overall, it was the best run we’ve had all week because it was a bit better overall.
"The race will be quite difficult because our rivals seem to be running faster than last year. We knew that this circuit wouldn’t be great for our car but we have to keep on pushing and see how it goes tomorrow."
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Vitantonio Liuzzi
Daniel Ricciardo
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:30.399 | 19 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:30.431 | 19 |
| 3. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:30.516 | 20 |
| 4. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:31.124 | 16 |
| 5. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:31.898 | 21 |
| 6. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:31.929 | 14 |
| 7. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 01:31.933 | 16 |
| 8. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:32.128 | 16 |
| 9. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:32.209 | 18 |
| 10. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:32.376 | 20 |
| Full results | ||||
| Daniel Ricciardo | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Daniel Ricciardo photos | |||
| Vitantonio Liuzzi | |||
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| More Vitantonio Liuzzi photos | |||
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