Daniel Ricciardo "wasn't sure" about deleted qualifying lap at Australian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo says he wasn’t sure if his lap would stand in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix, with the lap time deleted and Ricciardo knocked out in 18th.

Ricciardo had recorded a quick lap around the Albert Park circuit and was up into the top ten to the cheers of his home crowd, but it was for naught with the time disallowed shortly after.

“I knew in Turn 4 I was sliding and fighting to put the car on the limit, and in that lap, I washed a little bit wider,” said the Visa CashApp RB driver.

“I knew I used more kerb than I wanted on the exit, but I wasn’t sure whether it would be off track or not.”

“I had already forgotten about it by Turn 5 and 6 until I came into the garage and Pierre told me the lap was deleted.”

With teammate Yuki Tsunoda making it to Q3 and qualifying 8th for the grand prix, it was bittersweet for the RB team.

“The team put in a big effort after the weekend in Saudi and we also brought some new parts here which looked better,” said Ricciardo of his hopes for the weekend.

“When I crossed the line, I felt like I gave it all I had and got all I could out of it. I was happy with the lap but I’m a little skeptical because of where we are in terms of the stopwatch, as we were still slow with that lap.”

“I have done enough laps in quali over the years to know where I am, and I think we’re still missing some things.

“We’ve been facing some struggles all weekend, but it’s not anything in particular; I feel the car and I’m comfortable with it, with the balance and the braking and that's why the grid position is really painful.

“Tomorrow will be a long race, probably it’s a two-stop one, so perhaps this will give us a bit more opportunities.”

“I feel like I’ve got a little bit of my anger out of something, so probably something in my driver room will get broken and then I’ll feel better."

Despite Ricciardo’s doubts, RB racing director Alan Permane said he was confident that Tsunoda’s pace for Q3 was representative of the team’s potential.

“Qualifying eighth is amazing and a testament to the hard work the team has been putting in through the winter, bringing updates to this car already,” said Permane.

“A real shame for Daniel as he was right there with Yuki in Q1.”

“To just go outside the track a little bit, of course, the rules are the rules, and he has to lose the lap, but he was right there so there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t have gone to Q3 with Yuki.”

The Australian Grand Prix is underway from 3pm Sunday (AEDT).

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