Daniel Ricciardo was quick to damp down too much Red Bull enthusiasm Friday after he and team-mate Max Verstappen had dominated practice for this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The Renault-bound Australian was second fastest behind the Dutchman in both sessions, but said it would be naïve to think they were set for an intra-team scrap for pole position.
“I’m sure Ferrari and Mercedes will come on strong tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll just have to see. I hope they don’t! But I can’t see us being half a second or whatever in front of them.
“It could be a close six-way fight for pole and I think that would be exciting. If it stays like it is then it’s between us two – but I don’t want to be naive.”
He said the circuit had been slippery and encouraged mistakes, making it important to have a clean error-free lap in qualifying.
And he added that he felt Red Bull had more performance to come from their cars.
“I could feel the car wasn’t quite there, but we were still more off the pace than we thought.”