Daniel Ricciardo might have been the pacesetter on Friday but came close to crashing when it got down to the business end of qualifying. The Red Bull man says he expected to crash after tagging the wall at turn 15 on his first run.
The Australian had shown decent pace on Friday but on Saturday it was Red Bull who was playing catch up to the front runners and Ricciardo didn't hesitate to push the limits as far as he could.
“Q3 on the first run we brushed the wall and lost some time,” he said.
“The last lap I had to make it clean and fortunately clean was fast enough for the second row. But luckily it was just a kiss.
“When I turned in I thought it was going to be more than a kiss. It was at Turn 15, where I crashed two years ago.
"The car turned enough but I still hit it. I knew I went in very fast, like too fast but it’s fine.
Although he lines up fourth on the grid, Ricciardo expects to be mixing it with his rivals at the front come race day.
“I think Seb was about four tenths or something in front, so I think we can live with that for now.
"I think we’ll be closer again when we get to Barcelona and Monaco, but it’s not too bad around this circuit and it gives a good chance to be right there tomorrow.”
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