Ricciardo puzzled by qualifying struggle after failing to join Tsunoda in points · RaceFans

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Daniel Ricciardo was outperformed by Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying and the race on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and he was unable to grasp how his AlphaTauri workforce mate discovered a tempo benefit.

AlphaTauri wanted a high-scoring weekend as they chased Williams for seventh within the constructors’ standings. Tsunoda’s 4 factors for eighth place – after spending 5 laps main the race – left them three behind their rivals.

Ricciardo in the meantime certified fifteenth and solely spent six laps in a factors place earlier than ending eleventh. He mentioned it had been arduous to get well from his lowly beginning place.

“It wasn’t a nasty race,” mentioned Ricciardo. “We had first rate tempo, however as quickly as you get into a little bit soiled air, it’s arduous,” mentioned Ricciardo. “I really feel like we might’ve gotten a couple of extra factors, however beginning additional again put us on the again foot barely. It’s good that Yuki acquired some factors, however we wanted a little bit extra.”

Though Ricciardo began at a drawback in comparison with his workforce mate, lining up 9 locations behind him, he had the potential for a greater race had it not been for considered one of his brake ducts ingesting a visor tear-off, forcing him to pit early. Nevertheless he downplayed the importance of that in his race outcome.

“I must see how a lot it affected us, as a result of I believe for a two-stop [strategy], we’d have in all probability pitted a little bit bit later. I don’t know if it perhaps put us in a little bit little bit of site visitors or not, however I believe it was not unhealthy,” he reckoned.

“We nonetheless, I might say, recovered properly and had an honest race. There’s all the time ifs and whats and maybes, however yet another lap I believe we had Stroll or definitely we’d have gotten his DRS and had an opportunity at him. One lap away from a possible level, which isn’t too unhealthy [given] the place we began.”

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Tsunoda misplaced two locations from his beginning place, whereas Ricciardo climbed 4 spots. Ricciardo felt assured along with his race tempo however admitted that in qualifying he didn’t “fairly get totally on prime of it.”

Ricciardo known as qualifying “sort of the Achilles’ heel” of his Brazilian and Abu Dhabi grand prix weekends, saying “I’ll take some duty for that, not perhaps placing one of the best lap collectively.” However after qualifying final weekend he admitted the automobile felt present from “the second we hit the observe” and it was a thriller why he was to this point off Tsunoda’s tempo.

“We had been fairly optimistic with the brand new ground and some positives we discovered from that,” mentioned Ricciardo. “I believe it was simply attempting to only put all of it collectively.”

He mentioned that they had “a few little issues” to grasp after altering their set-up between last apply and qualifying, to little impact. “Even with a brand new set [of tyres] in Q2, we didn’t enhance the lap time from Q1.

“With observe evolution, issues like this, it was fairly unusual. Nothing basically felt off, there was a couple of corners the place you’re combating a little bit bit, however actually it simply felt like we didn’t have the velocity. And for now, a little bit little bit of a thriller.”

Ricciardo went into the weekend with excessive hopes as AlphaTauri brought a major floor upgrade for the final race of the season.

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“I undoubtedly felt like we had been going to be a Q3 automobile,” mentioned Ricciardo. “Clearly it’s by no means assured, as I stand right here. However we had been definitely assured. [Tsunoda] made progress, we regressed, we acquired worse. And we didn’t actually experiment with something loopy, so for now, a little bit of a thriller.”

Tsunoda moved his set-up nearer to his workforce mate’s, Ricciardo mentioned, which made the disparity between the 2 vehicles extra of a puzzle..

“We truly ended up fairly comparable with set-up. Full transparency, he got here nearer to us from [Friday]. So truly we ended up with a reasonably comparable automobile. And I believe that’s sort of why it feels a bit extra of a thriller, the place from actually lap one right this moment he was [ahead].”

“The primary factor was I simply didn’t really feel a peak within the tyre, peak within the grip,” Ricciardo added. “It was merely that. However why that was, we have to perceive.”

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