Ricciardo 'excited' for German GP despite grid penalties

Daniel Ricciardo remains "excited" for the German Grand Prix, despite facing the propect of starting from the back of the grid due to engine penalties. Red Bull's Friday at the Hockenheim was a day of contrasts as they topped both timesheets, only for Ricciardo's FP1 success to mean little and Max Verstappen's record-breaking FP2 effort to be followed by a mechanical problem.

Verstappen set a new lap record at Hockenheim of one minute 13.085 seconds, but an issue with gear-shifting meant he lost a significant chunk of long-run practice.

Red Bull's pace has thrown the decision to take engine penalties on Ricciardo's car into doubt. The team has expected to be stronger at Hungary, sacrificing Germany as a result.

But the Australian was typically positive when asked about the prospect of taking on the entire field come race day.

He told Sky Sports: "I could prepare myself and it makes you pretty excited to come through the back, have a bit of fun.

"I'll find the right perspective for it all but the race run now looked pretty decent. The car seems pretty strong so we'll see how we'll go tomorrow.

"I don't know how much we'll run but we'll just try and base ourselves in the race sims."

Verstappen explained why he had to take to the garage during FP2, confirming that the issue should not affect the car going forwards.

"We found out we had an oil leak, so they had to repair it and that's why we went out at the end again to check everything. It was fine."

Although most predictions would see Red Bull fall short of Ferrari and Mercedes in qualifying, Verstappen remains upbeat.

"We can still improve, also my lap was a bit compromised with traffic so I hope that tomorrow we can be closer, maybe with the weather we'll see what's going to happen."