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Ricciardo had a lap deleted that would have seen him escape Qualifying 1 but instead found himself one of the four drivers to be cut after the first 18 minutes of the three-part session.
While acknowledging the mistake is what saw him eliminated, the eight-time race winner also confessed that he’d probably have been eliminated in Qualifying 2 even if he had progressed.
“I knew at the time, Turn 4, I was fighting it,” Ricciardo recounted of his lap.
“I remember taking more kerb than I usually [do], so I knew I was wider than usual. But it’s funny, you do it, and already after Turn 5, I’ve forgotten about it.
“It took a while for it to sink in,” he added of the realisation he’d been eliminated.
“The lap itself, I was happy with from my side, I felt like I got everything out of it.
“When I saw it still wasn’t good enough compared to Yuki…. I’m still a bit puzzled because I know what those laps normally mean, and I crossed the line being like ‘yeah, that was a good one’.
“Those ones are normally enough, more than enough, and it’s still not.
“And then looking at the time he’s [Tsunoda’s] doing in Q2, I could tell you now, I can’t get seven more tenths out of it than what I got in Q1
“I’m sure there’s a bit of track evo, but honestly, there’s still some things we’ve got to look at because it’s been definitely a struggle so far.”
Further perplexing the Australian is the fact there is no obvious fault with the car. It’s a different problem to what he experienced at McLaren too, where he lacked confidence.
Now, he’s happy and comfortable, just unable to extract the pace like his team-mate.
“It was definitely the best quali lap that I’ve done this year,” he confessed.
“Going into Q2, I don’t know where there was much more time. You obviously take a couple of tenths from track evo, but six, seven-tenths, that’s not in it.
“I think from a balance and everything…
“To be clear, with the car I’ve felt… I feel confident in terms of braking and balance and all that.
“It’s not McLaren where I was a bit unsure and I can’t push the car here. But yeah, you just, some corner speeds I see… [I’m] simply not able to gain enough speed.
“I feel like I’m at the edge with the car in terms of like four-wheel sliding, so it’s balance and I feel now I’m at the limit of where its potential is,” he added.
“After Saudi, we saw some things across cars, the team changed quite a lot and gave me quite a few new parts for this weekend to address some of those issues and concerns.
“It looked like it was better, but I still, I’m still not fully convinced.
“We still feel like we’re struggling more than we normally are in a car that again I’m pretty happy with.
“It’s not like I’m like, yeah it’s really struggling here or here, it’s actually been a pretty nice car to drive. Just the lap time is proving otherwise.”
Ricciardo will line up for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix 18th, with only Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu behind him following Williams withdrawal of Logan Sargeant.
