Daniel Ricciardo lamented the lack of pace during qualifying at the Austrian GP, but believes that sprint racing can be a good business to recover positions
The first day of activities for the Austrian GP was not the best for McLaren. Both drivers suffered at the Red Bull Ring and will start from the eighth row together, with Lando Norris in 15th and Daniel Ricciardo in 16th place. The Australian once again suffered to get performance out of his car and was in Q1 for the second time this season.
After the session, Daniel got something off his chest. He admitted that he still lacks pace, but believes that things can change in the sprint race, especially, in Sunday's race.
"Being out in Q1 is never good, and it's not what we wanted here. We had some things to sort out after an interrupted TL1, but not enough to get us into Q3, so I don't want to use that as an excuse. We are simply still a little off the pace, and on such a short circuit, with the cars so close together, it costs a lot. 30 thousandths would put me in Q2, the margins are so small," he said.
"But lap times are what they are. We have to work on that now. We have a long weekend ahead of us, so my focus is to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. We'll have a chance tomorrow in the sprint to make up some positions, and then a chance on Sunday where most of the points are distributed. We'll look at the rest of the weekend and try to improve," he concluded.
His teammate also had many difficulties, even though he made it to Q2. With a lap deleted in the last seconds of qualifying, he was only 15th. Lando then explained that he had a problem with his brakes.
"Difficult qualifying. We should be in Q3, but we had some problems today that didn't allow us to advance as far as we should have, which is disappointing. I had a brake problem in qualifying and couldn't push and write a representative lap. Technical problems brought us down today, but that happens sometimes. We will work hard to correct them, come back stronger tomorrow, and try to recover some positions in the sprint before the GP on Sunday.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the weekend's Austrian F1 GP. On Saturday, the second free practice session opens the day at 7:30am (GMT-3). The sprint race starts at 11:30am.