Daniel Ricciardo will start the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race from 16th after a disastrous qualifying effort at the Red Bull Ring.
In what was a calamitous session for McLaren, Ricciardo’s teammate Lando Norris made it through to Q2, only to suffer a brake issue and set the slowest time. He will start the sprint race P15.
Max Verstappen set the fastest time and will start pole, followed by the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
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Ricciardo said he wasn’t lacking confidence, but losing a little bit of time everywhere.
“It’s not something where we are massively missing in high-speed or anything. I think it’s kind of just accumulative a little bit everywhere,” he told Sky Sports.
“It’s not necessarily confidence. It’s not like I’m going into a corner like ‘I’m scared, what do I do?’, it’s more the feel and the ability to push it up to that edge. Obviously there are times you overshoot it, but just balancing right on the edge of that is still a bit of an uncertainty.
“I’m not sure how else to explain it. It hasn’t been a long day of running and obviously being out in Q1, it’s not like all weekend we’ve struggled, but of course today out of the box we didn’t feel rapid. I don’t know if it’s down to wind or layout, not too sure yet.
“We have some homework to do and I’ll get stuck in tonight. As frustrating as Q1 is, it’s a long weekend now and I’ve got the sprint to get after and then the race so I’ll certainly keep my eyes forward.”
Both Mercedes cars crashed out of the third qualifying session, which set the grid for Saturday night’s (AEST) sprint race.
Hamilton was chasing his first pole since the penultimate race of last season when he slid off on turn eight with about five minutes to go. The seven-time world champion apologised to his team before climbing out and inspecting the damage.
When the session restarted, another red flag came out for Russell’s shunt at the final corner. He was also unharmed.
Russell was later summonsed to the stewards for walking across the track under a red flag but got off with a warning.
Verstappen went quickest with his final lap, edging Charles Leclerc by just .029 seconds.
“In the end it was a really tight qualifying and it’s a really challenging track to get qualifying right,” Verstappen said. “The track temperature is dropping, the wind is picking up a little bit.”
His Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez finished fourth but will start 13th after receiving a track limits penalty.
— With AP
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