Indian GP: Ricciardo, Vergne play down chances of Korea repeat

The Italian squad enjoyed one of its strongest races of the season in Korea a fortnight ago when Vergne finished in eighth and Ricciardo in ninth after showing strong race pace.

The Australian driver qualified in 15th position for tomorrow's race and, although he feels a points finish is still on the cards, he reckons the competition will be tougher than at Yeongam.

"I'm not saying Korea was easy, but it was definitely easier than what we have had previously," Ricciardo told AUTOSPORT.

"I think we'll probably have to work a bit harder for it this weekend. I still believe points are possible, but the pace seems to be more evenly spread across the field. It's a tough one.

"A lot of the times lately we seem to surprise ourselves with the pace, so I guess there's good reason it could happen again tomorrow, but I think most people will be more competitive tomorrow."

Ricciardo believes he could have achieved a better time during Q2, but he does not think his position would have changed much even if he had managed a perfect lap.

"I think in terms of my lap in Q2, the last sector could have been a bit better, but even putting it all together maybe we would have got Schumacher, but who's to say he didn't do the perfect lap either.

"I think in terms of position is more or less all we could have done for the session. I'm relatively pleased with the day. You always want more but looking at this morning I think we made a step going into qualifying."

Vergne will start from 18th place after being knocked out in Q1 and he too reckons that repeating the Korea performance will not be easy.

"That might be a little more complicated, but I definitely hope the pace will be good again," he said.

"Starting from 18th we can say it's difficult but we will try our best and hopefully it will be better for me in the race than in qualifying and we'll see how it goes."