“Dissapointed” Ricciardo to start season-opener from P14

Daniel Ricciardo was “disappointed” with his performance in last night’s season-opening qualifying session, with the #3 set to start the Bahrain Grand Prix from fourteenth on the grid.  

Coming into qualifying, there were a lot of prying eyes honed in on the RB garage after the team showed promising signs of pace across the weekend’s practice sessions, with Daniel Ricciardo even topping FP1 on Thursday.

Come the green light in qualifying, however, the was a shift in the Australian driver who said he “never felt completely comfortable” in the VCARB01. 

“I’m not too happy with my performance tonight and a bit disappointed, to be honest,” Ricciardo said.  

“I think the weekend was going steadily and we were feeling fairly confident coming into qualifying.” 

In Q1, Tsunoda and Ricciardo advanced without any worries, their final flying laps quick enough for P11 and P13, respectively.

In the second session, however, RB sang a much different tune.

Daniel Ricciardo only managed to promote himself into a very at-risk P10, ultimately dropping into the elimination zone at the extremely rapid hands of the #55 Ferrari. 

His fastest time was a 1:30.278s, settling for P14 for tomorrow’s race.

Daniel Ricciardo driving the VCARB 01 on track during qualifying. Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

“In the end, I never felt completely comfortable and felt like there was something I was struggling with during the lap, and therefore, didn’t cross the line feeling like I’d done a good job.

“As for our car and pace, as you see where Yuki is, that’s where we expected to be.”

His teammate was also demoted into the elimination zone, by a very painful seven-millisecond margin to Oscar Piastri on the cusp. 

As a result, Tsunoda out-qualified his teammate and will start from eleventh. 

“Tonight was the least comfortable I felt so far this weekend, but going into the race, the approach to the track and car is different, and I’ve got more confidence going into tomorrow.” 

“I think there’s still a chance for points.”

Ricciardo will be hunting down the top ten come lights out tonight, with the likes of Alex Albon, Lance Stroll, Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg standing in his way. 

Lights out for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix will take place at 2:00 AM, AEST, with the race taking place on a Saturday, local time, in Bahrain due to the religious period of Ramadan starting on Sunday. 

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