Ricciardo "stoked" to have Verstappen within striking range

70th Anniversary Grand Prix

Ricciardo "stoked" to have Verstappen within striking range

Ricciardo will start the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix fifth

Nicolas Quarles van Ufford & Sam Hall

Saturday 8 August 2020 17:22 Updated: 19:32

Daniel Ricciardo is "stoked" to have qualified just one place behind his former team-mate Max Verstappen at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Ricciardo will start the second of two consecutive races at Silverstone from a season best fifth.

Qualifying eighth one week ago with a time seven tenths slower than Verstappen's, the Australian was "stoked" to have closed the gap to one tenth this time around.

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He told Sky Sports F1:"To be a tenth off Max, we’re very happy with that, there’s a lot of progress there. We were about eight-tenths off of him last week."

He added: "I don’t think anyone expected P3 but they expected somewhere around where we are now.

"P5, I’m stoked. Pretty much every lap I crossed the line, exhaled and I thought I got the most out of it, so that was a satisfying session."

Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas were the only drivers to run the medium tyre in their final runs of Q3, but the 32-year-old doesn't feel he lost time by disregarding the softest rubber.

He explained: "I put the soft on in Q1 and I thought I did a good lap in the first run, and in Q2, I put on the medium and I was a second quicker or something and it felt easier as well.

"I think the car was happier with that tyre. From that point, I was set on the medium."

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