Daniel Ricciardo is not worried about starting the U.S. Grand Prix on the super-soft tyre, saying it gives him the chance to attack from third on the grid.
Ricciardo is the only man on the first two rows starting on the softest tyre, with Mercedes' drivers and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen -- who qualified fourth -- all making it through Q2 on the soft compound. That means the cars around him are set for a longer opening stint, though Ricciardo may benefit from added grip at the start.
Ricciardo is happy with Red Bull's decision to split the strategy and is buoyed by his pace on the super-soft from the weekend's practice session.
"I'm not concerned," Ricciardo said after qualifying. "We expected it to go like this. Max was wanting to try the soft [in Q2] and I was happy to try the super-soft. I was a bit more comfortable on the super-soft tyre yesterday in the long runs.
"That was the reason for that and hopefully it gives me a bit of a better launch off the line, we'll see. I think the day was pretty good. Not really close to Mercedes but we expected them to be very hard to beat. We've got a good buffer over Ferrari. I think the car was working pretty well, I think we've got a good chance tomorrow so let's see what we can do."
When asked if that meant "all-out attack" tomorrow, he laughed and said: "Yeah! We'll see what happens but hopefully the super-soft gives me some friendly grip off the line."
Red Bull's race pace looked good over the weekend's three practice sessions and Ricciardo's spirits are high.
"We'll see how tomorrow plays out. Track conditions changed quite a bit today, they should be similar tomorrow as we did today. That could have a bit of an influence but we did look good yesterday. I'm the only one on the first two rows that starts on the super-softs. Sure, that tyre probably won't last as long but it might give me a bit of an advantage at the start.
"It is a good circuit around here and you can do overtaking, a few corners where you can change line and a few things -- it's not a one-line circuit, there's some experiments you can do. We'll see what happens tomorrow."