With Mercedes once again out of reach, Daniel Ricciardo was left to fend off a challenge from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and finish third in Saturday's qualifying session in Abu Dhabi.
The Aussie extracted the most out of his mount with a good final lap in an evening session which saw Red Bull achieve its fastest times in Q2 on Pirelli's SuperSoft tyre instead of the UltraSoft rubber.
Ricciardo justified the unusual strategy by the necessity to find some way to upset the dominance of its Mercedes rival and by setting itself up hopefully for a more aggressive final stint in Sunday's race.
"We've got to try something, I think," said Ricciardo.
"It seems to be the trend this year obviously. If we're in a position to qualify on a different tyre , then we'll try and see if it gives us an opportunity.
"Hopefully it puts us in the fight. There is a title on the line for these guys here, hopefully it's fun throughout the pack and we can do something to make it even more exciting than it already is.
"As predicted Mercedes pulled a bit more than us in qualifying but we'll see if the race comes back for us.
Overall, Ricciardo was happy with his performance which achieved the team's target.
"It was a pretty slow starting qualifying session for me but we sort of chipped away at it and then in Q3, obviously when it mattered, I put in some good times.
" I'm happy, third was the target and hopefully I'll be somewhere around there as well tomorrow."
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