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Ricciardo puts progress down to Pirelli

Ricciardo doubted whether he would be driving in India © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Indian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Narain Karthikeyan
• |
• Daniel Ricciardo

• Teams:
• HRT

Daniel Ricciardo believes he has made a breakthrough with the Pirelli tyres over recent races and is happy with how his race pace is progressing.

Ricciardo, a Red Bull junior driver, made his F1 debut with HRT at Silverstone earlier this year, where he has been learning the ropes over the last eight races. At the last race in Korea he finished ahead of one of one of the Virgins, HRT's main rival at the back of the grid, and is confident he is making progress.

"I think definitely at the last two races, I've been pretty pleased with those and we are aiming for these kinds of performances," he said. "We know generally Virgin has more pace than us, so if we can mix it in the race then it's normally a sign of a good result. Particularly Korea, we had probably nine dry laps coming into the race and it was still a bit new to me but we got on with it and really gave them a really good fight."

There have been no updates to the HRT at recent races, so Ricciardo puts the improvement down to a better understanding of the Pirelli tyres.

"It's hard to pinpoint something, we haven't made any big changes," he added. "I think it's probably that, just subconsciously, I've worked the tyres a bit better in the race and given them a bit more life and performance. I guess setup on Friday has built up towards that as well. In qualifying it's always nice to be quick, but we're sacrificing a bit for the race which has been good for us."

At this weekend's Indian Grand Prix, Ricciardo will be partnered by Narain Karthikeyan at HRT, after the team asked Tonio Liuzzi to stand aside for the Indian. He said he had been pleasantly surprised by the team's decision.

"It's a nice surprise," said Ricciardo. "I had the impression that I would be here but perhaps not driving, it was just a gut feeling. So now I'm here in the car which is cool and definitely something that I'm going to try and use the most of."

And he is looking forward to tackling the brand new Buddh International Circuit, which he thinks will allow some good opportunities to overtake.

"The entry of some corners are wide and then the exit is very tight. I guess with that they've seen an opportunity for some overtaking. If you see a big wide entry then you'll normally try to fit a few more cars in there. And then the exits definitely tighten up.

"It looks a little bit like Shanghai but a different approach. It's got a bit of everything, which is nice. Unique as well and that's a good thing because we don't want to come to a new circuit that is just like every other one. It's nice they're trying something different."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.