Daniel Ricciardo says he is frustrated with fifth after Red Bull opted to push on his first timed lap at the end of Q3 instead of his second.
Ricciardo took fifth on the grid for tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix, eight tenths off pole position and half a second slower than his team mate Max Verstappen.
“I think we were definitely better than fifth,” says Ricciardo. “I don’t know how much we were off pole, but we just didn’t get it right in Q3.
“We tried to do a first timed lap and I think that could’ve worked but you needed a hard outlap to get the tyres ready and awake. The last run, we went out of the pits and we had two cars in front of us. We couldn’t push to get the tyres going. We had such a big gap behind, so I don’t know why we didn’t wait longer as then I could’ve pushed the whole lap and been ready for that flying lap.”
Whereas Verstappen improved by over two tenths in Q3 over his best Q2 time, Ricciardo only shaved a few thousandths off of his Q2 effort with his single final flying lap.
“I’m frustrated,” admits Ricciardo. “Around here, you can’t make these mistakes. It seemed pretty clear to me what we could’ve done better, so yeah. Frustrating. Never really got the best out of it.
“We’ll chat. As I said, it seemed pretty black and white. I had such a gap behind me that why didn’t we wait longer til I went out? So we’ll see. Maybe I’m getting my facts wrong, but it seemed pretty black and white for me in the cockpit.”
F1Rob
27th May 2017, 21:05
I think that unless their motor isn’t getting upgraded further, they will continue finishing behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
27th May 2017, 21:06
Rb’s tactics were too clever, I think Monaco throws engineers off their game, over defensive pitstop strategies, pit lane blunders, over ambitious Q tactics. Today everyone but Raikkonen went for a logical Monaco qualifying 3 run, go early try to put a strong banker lap and then try to improve incrementally. Most teams didn’t improve significantly in q3.
I’m sorry for Daniel, he’s been rattled by RB’s poor form and Max’s hype. I still think he’s the quicker of the 2 but, often Max has that lucky star. Shanghai and Bahrain are 2 good examples of that this season, Daniel out qualifies to then see his team mate take a brilliant gamble or a fluke to get past him.
Patrick (@anunaki)
27th May 2017, 22:02
I don’t really see why he would have beaten Max in Q3 withouten this. There is no evidence supporting this from Q1 or Q2.
This stuff happens sometimes. It did also happen to Max this season, not sure what GP from my memories
Micheal (@shakengandulf)
28th May 2017, 3:49
Max always pushes harder in practice and q1/q2…i don’t see why Ric has push unecessarily to prove something.
Matn
28th May 2017, 7:07
Out of the 15 quali session so far this season (China excluded cause of a mechanical failure) Verstappen won 12.
Ric won Q2 in Austrailia (0.1 sec), Q3 in Bahrein (0.1 sec) and Sochi (0.2 sec). While… in Bahrein Massa got in the way for doing that perfect lap and in Sochi Max’ car fell apart (after Q3 they changed the bargeboard, complete floor, engine and waterpump).
To me it seems like Verstappen is near consistantly faster, we know Q3 counts, but c’mon there’s no denying one does better speed than the other
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th May 2017, 8:05
For the faster cars, how fast you are in Q1 and Q2 hardly matters at all. So long as you know you are through. Especially Q2 as Ricciardo may have been trying to save his tyres for the start of the race. IMO, this is smart thinking by Ricciardo. More often than not this year, Ricciardo has been behind Verstappen in practice, Q1 and Q2 but often has beaten him in Q3 where it matters. Even the commentators say that he usually seems to perform where it matters. Just Verstappen has got the better of him twice now. Overall, I still certainly think Ricciardo is a better qualifier than Verstappen and I think he will beat him more often than not – just like last year. Verstappen had quite a few last year that were quite a way behind Ricciardo, often resulting in 1 or 2 drivers between them.
Summer
28th May 2017, 8:22
Well, this is called F1 racing…..not F1 qualifying…does it??
Matn
28th May 2017, 10:26
In quali it’s Ric – Ver > 3 – 3
But seriously, you can’t take China in the equation
Bahrein may be doubtfull, but Verstappens car coming apart in Sochi can hardly be ignored I suppose.
If know FP, Q1 and 2 don’t matter for the outcome, but wouldn’t it be more acceptable if the two where closer in those sessions..?
In all honesty Ver does a little better in quali and a lot better in races and this is what PF and Q are showing us.
It’s seems people can hardly believe Verstappen is getting the overhand rather sooner then later
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
28th May 2017, 1:39
Not sure if he would of beaten max either, but the most crucial qual of the season and the team stuffs up again!! No wonder he is jacked off, safety cars or different strat might be his only chance for pod..
CS
28th May 2017, 3:35
Las year also he was screwed by that team for their so called firstlap nutcase superstar driver. If he is smart he should leave that team for good as soon as he gets a better drive.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
28th May 2017, 5:18
Seems his contract is watertight and unlike the “streetwalker” team of F1 Williams.. l doubt if RB will be bought out of his contract
Michael
28th May 2017, 7:45
Cmon Daniel your brilliant around Monaco as last year proved. You can get on that podium again with good strategy and a bit of luck.
Michael
28th May 2017, 7:49
Also check out the head to head in qualifying when it matters. Of the top 3 teams only Kimi has been blown away. To Max’s credit he is brilliant on gst first lap and Daniel needs to start doing the same.
2017 Qualifying Head-to-Heads
(before any penalties are applied)
Lewis Hamilton 3 – 3 Valtteri Bottas
Sebastian Vettel 5 – 1 Kimi Raikkonen
Daniel Ricciardo 3 – 3 Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez 5 – 1 Esteban Ocon
Felipe Massa 6 – 0 Lance Stroll
Fernando Alonso 5 – 0 Stoffel Vandoorne
(Jenson Button 1 – 0 Stoffel Vandoorne)
Carlos Sainz 4 – 2 Daniil Kvyat
Romain Grosjean 3 – 3 Kevin Magnussen
Nico Hulkenberg 6 – 0 Jolyon Palmer
Marcus Ericcson 0 – 4 Pascal Wehrlein
(Marcus Ericsson 2 – 0 Antonio Giovinazzi)
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
28th May 2017, 11:09
A few excellent Q3 performances aside, Ricciardo has been comfortably second best to Verstappen this season. Maybe instead of moaning and blaming the team he could have a look at himself?
GtisBetter (@)
28th May 2017, 11:14
Max in one of the best street circuit racers out there and i don’t think ricciardo would have beaten him, however, if the team prevented him to get his best lap in due to weird tactics he is right to complain.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
28th May 2017, 16:21
He just did