Ricciardo: “Small margins” cost SQ2 spot in Austria

Just two-hundredths of a second stood between Daniel Ricciardo and a place in SQ2 during last night’s “tricky” Sprint Qualifying, with the RB driver trying to “stay a bit optimitic” starting from P16 for the Austrian GP Sprint Race.

Having completed 31 laps in the morning practice session, Ricciardo’s prospects for Sprint Qualifying weren’t looking too bright back in P16. 

Setup had been an issue for the #3 side of the RB garage as the team conducted more tests on their unhappy upgrades, with Ricciardo taking a pause mid-FP1 for a front suspension readjustment.

In SQ1, Ricciardo was among the first haul of cars to exit the pitlane, with this first session becoming increasingly more important for the Australian after his VCARB01’s drop in performance over recent weeks.

On the mandatory medium compound, the RB driver’s first run left him with a lacking time of 1:06.890s.

That was the slowest of all drivers who had completed their opening attempts, putting him in P18. 

Those two back-markers behind Ricciardo were Lewis Hamilton and Zhou Guanyu, with both drivers having their times deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 6 and the newly revised Turn 9.

With a mix of run plans across the board, half the grid remained out on track while the rest took a momentary pause in the pitlane.

At the time of the partial lull, Ricciardo found himself deep in the elimination zone, sharing that space with Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Hamilton and Zhou.

“It’s a short lap so it’s always going to be tricky, the first lap was pretty horrific,” Ricciardo said.

“We changed quite a bit from FP1, so yeah, I feel like obviously it’s on a Sprint [weekend], it’s hard to get it right.

“We changed quite a lot and I felt like the first lap we were still quite a long way off in terms of things we can change, front wing and this and that, so we came back to the pits, changed what we could.

Daniel Ricciardo on track during Sprint Qualifying in Austria. Image: Philip Platzer.

“I think the second lap was definitely better, but yeah, we still need to fine-tune.

“Small margins, I think it was tricky but we’re still trying to learn the packages and stuff, but yeah, when you miss out by a small bit, obviously that parts a little frustrating.”

Setting off to complete his final run, the time of 1:06.581s wasn’t anything special.

After Ricciardo jumped into P14, the likes of Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda were quick to demote and force him into an SQ1 exit.

It was only a marginal exit, however, with Ricciardo knocked out by just 24 milliseconds to his teammate who nearly ended the session early after bringing out late yellow flags in Sector 3.

Tsunoda dipped a wheel into the Turn 9 gravel trap and was sent spinning into the run-off area at Turn 10, but it wasn’t enough to disrupt the session and save Ricciardo’s hopes.

The #3 was joined by Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Zhou in an SQ1 exit, and will have Logan Sargeant and his teammate in his sights on the run to the first tight corner tonight.

“The Sprint now, its… obviously, starting where we are it’s tricky to get top eight, but try and use it as a little bit more understanding of the car, and then obviously we can change [the setup] after the Sprint for the next quali.

“I do think we’ve made the right changes, but we just now need to probably… let’s say, what we put on the car I think is the right thing, but we just need to now balance it better. 

“I guess we’ll get a chance to do that before the main quali tomorrow, so for that, I’ll try and stay a bit optimistic.

“But [SQ1], obviously that’s… you know how it goes.”

Lights out will take place at 8:00 PM tonight before Qualifying to set the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix follows at Midnight.

Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

2024 Austrian Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, June 28th

FP1: 20:30-21:30

Saturday, June 29th

Sprint Qualifying: 00:30-01:14

Sprint Race: 20:00-21:30

Sunday, June 30th

Qualifying: 00:00-01:00

Race: 23:00

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