Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo has admitted his surprise that he managed to qualify sixth for Sunday's German Grand Prix.

Ricciardo said that the team made changes to the car between the third practice session and qualifying.

"I think [I'm] surprised at sixth but obviously a few guys opted for the prime, so whether we'd have stayed there, who knows?" Sky Sports News quotes Ricciardo as saying.

"I knew Q3 wasn't impossible. I knew it was probably going to be a little bit harder than it was last week; that was realistic. But I knew that if we got our stuff together, we'd have a good crack.

"It worked well. After P3 we made some needed changes; they helped us out a bit and pushed us forward. Then I put a lap together in Q2 that did us a favour."

Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton took pole ahead of Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.