Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has claimed he got Formula 1 teammate Max Verstappen half a tenth of a second's worth of pace for his 20th birthday after qualifying behind hiꦕm for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull teammates will line up next to each other o🎶n the second row at Sepang, with birthday boy Verstappen P3 and Ricciardo P4, the lat𒆙ter finishing 0.054s behind in Q3.

Joking after the session, Ricciardo said: "First things first, everyone wants to know what I got ꦉMax for his birthday.

"I got him half a tenth. That is my gift to him."

Asked where he gave it to him, Ricciardo said 🍷"I think it was Turn 4 exit. 

"I was struggling quite a lot in that corner just to keep the rear steady, so in Q1 it was really b🎀ad there. We got a bit better but it was the main area."

The Red Bulls had topped FP1 and been&🉐nbsp;ahead of the Mercedes in FP2 before Ricciardo split Kimi Raikkonen and the Mercedes d🌜rivers in final practice, but dropped back in qualifying.

Nevertheless, Ricciardo rates their chances, especially in a wet race, wi൩th Vettel's engine failure in qualifying meaning Mercedes may not push𝔍 as hard to preserve their championship lead.

"If K👍imi wants to get out in front, looking at the pace all weekend it minimizes our chances," Ricci🍷ardo said.

"But if it goes off in order, Mercedes have not shown enough to really show that th🃏ey are going to dominate in the dry.

"So that will definitely open up some opportunities. I don’t think we need to lead into Turn 1 to have a 𓂃chance to win. It could go either way. 

"His half second gap could come towards us, or he could bring it to a second in the 🙈race. But I think if anything it will come𓄧 towards us.

"Rain we can ꦆtalk even more about a ♋podium. A bigger step. We can definitely be quick in the wet. 

"The way our car𒁏 works around here we have had to put quite a bit of downforce on, so another reason why we would be competitive in the wet. We won’t be diไsappointed if it rains."

Coming second place in Singapore after the🐈 double Ferrari DNF which also took out his teammate, Ricciaꦺrdo seemed hopeful for more potential chaos in Sepang.

"I🐎t should be interesting. I am sure that Kimi is going to get some heat t🍨o make Lewis’ life hell at the start, so we will see how that plays out," he said.