Daniel Ricciardo ‘puzzled’ by gap to 69-race driver in Australian GP qualifying

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Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he is ‘puzzled’ by the Perth native’s deficit to Visa Cash App RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda across qualifying for the 2024 F1 Australian GP.

The Faenza outfit will start Sunday’s race from P8 and P18 on the grid as Visa Cash App RB target their first points of the season. Tsunoda managed to drag his VCARB 01 into Q3 while out-qualifying both Aston Martins, plus Lewis Hamilton. But Ricciardo bowed out in only Q1.

Ricciardo was confident that he did enough to progress through to, at least, Q2 for his home round. But the stewards deleted the 34-year-old’s fastest lap time in the opening stage after exceeding track limits. Ricciardo put all four wheels over the white line on the exit of Turn 5.

Daniel Ricciardo is ‘puzzled’ by Yuki Tsunoda’s pace in qualifying for the Australian GP

Only Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu posted a slower lap time in Q1 than Ricciardo after the 24-year-old sustained front wing damage. He posted a 1:18.188 to get a P19 start for Sunday’s Australian GP with only 19 drivers now competing after Williams withdrew Logan Sargeant.

Ricciardo did post a 1:17.466 lap to slot into P12 before the stewards deleted the RB driver’s best Q1 time. It left him down in P18 with a 1:18.085 while teammate Tsunoda sat in P12 on a 1:17.356. Tsunoda improved to 1:16.791 in Q2 before setting his 1:16.788 in Q3 to claim P8.

RB driver Daniel Ricciardo was confident he had reached Q2

Ricciardo cannot understand how Tsunoda found 0.565 seconds between his Visa Cash App RB teammate’s Q1 and Q2 runs. The Australian believes he would not have found the same levels of improvement between sessions. So, he and the Faenza outfit need to find answers.

The 34-year-old, who is contesting his 243rd Grand Prix, also admits that he believes his Q1 efforts were enough. Ricciardo knew he made a mistake at T5 but was confident the lap put him into Q2. Yet Tsunoda, who is contesting his 69th entry in Formula 1, will lead RB’s quest.

“I knew at the time, Turn 4, I was fighting it,” he said, via quotes by Speedcafe. “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.”

Ricciardo added: “It took a while for it to sink in. The lap itself, I was happy with [it] 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.

“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 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.”