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Ricciardo will line up 14th for Saturday night’s race while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will start the 50-lap encounter from ninth.
The difference between the two on the stopwatch was more worrying than their positions, with Tsunoda 0.461s faster in the second segment of the three-part session.
“Up until this point, no, I think we’ve definitely been close, but obviously, he did a good job, so I’m definitely not saying he didn’t, but it’s not like he’s been really comfortable and I haven’t been,” Ricciardo said.
“Coming into quali, it was pretty evenly matched, and in Q1 it looked the way.
“Then he and pretty much everyone else was able to make that step, and we simply struggled.
“Before I think about the race I want to really dive into that session and see what there is because, yeah, I know that’s not the gap.”
Analysis of Ricciardo’s best lap in qualifying overlayed against Tsunoda’s best lap highlighted one main difference.
Through the Turn 8 complex, Ricciardo was faster into that part of the track but lost time through the middle of the sequence.
Data traces also suggest the Australian had to get out of the throttle as he exited the complex, where Tsunoda was able to accelerate more cleanly.
There is otherwise little between the two laps, with Ricciardo even marginally faster into Turn 22.
“Last week I was I was frustrated just more with myself because I knew there was time on the table,” Ricciardo reflected.
“Of course, the car’s never going to be perfect, but I knew last week was on me. But today is obviously a bit more of a mystery.
“The balance, okay, a few corners, which, of course, you struggle a little bit here and there, but simply in Q2 when everyone’s able to find half a second or something, we just plateaued.
“I felt like I couldn’t get any more out of it with what I had. It wasn’t like I had massive understeer or oversteer, it was simply just we didn’t have the, what felt like, grip compared to the others.
“I know where the time was but I don’t know how we could have got it in that session.”
It leaves the eight-time race winner hoping that something is found post-session to explain his inability to improve.
“I don’t think we did anything, even compared to Q1, nothing too crazy,” he said of his tyre preparation, ruling that out as a potential cause.
“Even just doing the same, you would just gain normally with track evolution and all of the simple things; you don’t even need to try harder, the lap time just comes, and it just didn’t.
“But I don’t want to be too down,” he added.
“I mean, also this track, there’s so much load and you hit some kerbs – I don’t know, maybe there’s something that we damaged on a kerb or something.
“Let’s see. Hopeful that maybe we find something like that but, yeah, for now, a bit early to think too positively about the race.”
