Poor Austria qualifying "bit of a strange one" for Daniel Ricciardo

Despite promising pace during early practice runs before the Styrian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo was only able to manage P13 in a tight qualifying session on Saturday.

Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. (Supplied)

“Not the best day, said the Australian. "I don’t really know why."

Ricciardo had set the second fastest time in Practice 2 and enjoyed competitive times throughout Friday before he was eliminated in Q2 on Saturday with a time of 1m04.808s.

"Obviously yesterday was good and the afternoon was really encouraging," he said.

"We just lost a lot of pace overnight with this morning being quite slow and then quali was a similar story."

Daniel Ricciardo on Saturday at the Styrian Grand Prix. (Supplied)

Ricciardo has admitted he has had trouble adjusting to the car since moving to the McLaren F1 team, but felt like he had found his feet in the French Grand Prix last week.

"Bit of a strange one at the moment."

"Yesterday looked really promising, so it’s a shame. I would never have expected to be P13. We’ll try to understand it and have a strong race tomorrow.”

Team Principal Andreas Seidl shares Ricciardo's concerns.

"Of course, Daniel and ourselves are disappointed we couldn’t progress further than P13 with his car. This is something we'll analyse, reset and go again tomorrow with the clear objective to get back into the points."

Daniel Ricciardo leaves the garage at the Styrian Grand Prix. (Supplied)

The other side of the McLaren garage was in high spirits, as teammate Lando Norris qualified fourth, promoted to third after a penalty for Valterri Bottas

“A very good quali – P3 in the end," he said.

"The car felt good throughout all of qualifying, I was confident and could always make the small improvements needed."

"That gave us P3, which is nice – especially to be only two-and-a-bit-tenths off pole."

Lando Norris preparing for Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. (Supplied)

Norris is proving he is focused on his long-term results, committing to the championship fight both for himself and in the constructor's championship.

"A lot of positives and a very good position for us to score some solid points tomorrow, but it’s a long race and that’s where the points are."

"That’s the important thing."