Daniel Ricciardo had started Q3 on super soft tyres but later switched to soft tyres as he felt that he had a better chance with them.
However, the move did not pay off for Ricciardo, as he had to settle for P6. He was three tenths of a second off Lewis Hamilton’s pole time.
“In Q3, I think we both put in a strong lap on the super-softs which wasn’t, I don’t think, our preferred tyre,” says Ricciardo.
“I think that just the way the car’s feeling this weekend, I thought we were more comfortable on the softs. That’s why I went for that tyre in the second part of Q3.” he added.
Mercedes and Ferrari were clearly quicker than Red Bull in the final part of qualifying, something that ‘disheartened’ the Australian to quite an extent.
“They put in some belters in the end,” Ricciardo said.
“It’s a little bit disheartening, because I don’t really know what I could’ve done more with what we had. With the laps we put in, I thought we would’ve been a couple tenths from pole, not sixth tenths. That gap is a little bit not so nice.
“And then the two one-thosandths of a gap [to Verstappen], yeah, that’s not nice either. But that’s what it is.” he added.
Verstappen ended qualifying with P5 and the duo could once again go wheel-to-wheel in the opening lap at Barcelona tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see how the duo behave on the track this time round and Red Bull would be hoping that it is all clean.
