Daniel Ricciardo is confident Red Bull will be ab🌳le to challenge Mercedes in the Chinese Grand Prix after a difficult qualifying for the reigning world champions. 

Ricciardo recovered from a suspected t⛎urbo failure in FP3 and subsequent engine change to qualify sixth on the grid in Shanghai, less than 0.2s behind teammate Max Verstappen as Red Bull locked out th🍨e third row. 

With Mercedes struggling in the cool qualifying ༒conditions, Verstappen was able to get within 0.2s of defending world cꩵhampion Lewis Hamilton. Ricciardo is taking encouragement from Red Bull’s display and believes that while Ferrari may be out of reach, he feels his team can pose a threat to Mercedes in Sunday’s race, having shown encouraging pace during long run simulations on Friday. 

“I think Ferrari’s had really good pace all weekend and I can’t honestly s൩ay now that we’re going to have their pace tomorrow,” Ricciardo said. “But Mercedes definitely look within reach. They haven’t been characteristically strong at the moment this weekend. In my mind there is still a spot up on 💞the podium for grabs, so we’ll try and aim for that.”

When asked whether he🌄 felt this was a sign of Mercedes’ dominance in F1 coming to an end or just an anomaly due to the weather, the Australi🥀an replied: “I don’t know. 

“It’s nice to see that we’re pretღty close to Mercedes, but it’s not nice to see that Ferrari is half a second in front of the rest. It is what it is, we’ll crack on. We’ve got some work to do, butꦺ hopefully that starts tomorrow.”