Daniel Ricciardo is “puzzled” by Yuki Tsunoda’e superior qualifying performance over him with his F1 career on the line at RB

Daniel Ricciardo has proved second best to Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.

Daniel Ricciardo is “puzzled” by Yuki Tsunoda’e superior qualifying performance over him with his F1 career on the line at RB

Daniel Ricciardo [L] Yuki Tsunoda [R] (images via IMAGO)

Daniel Ricciardo had a lap time deletion in Q1 at Albert Park which saw him drop down into the relegation zone. The RB driver felt that it was his best lap of the 2024 season but despite this, was outshined by his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda at the qualifying for his home race. Following this, the 34-year-old revealed that he felt puzzled by the Japanese driver’s strong pace around Melbourne.

Daniel Ricciardo had high hopes during the qualifying at the Australian GP. With pressure to silence the critics, the Aussie wanted to demonstrate his strength around Albert Park. However, the RB driver got eliminated in Q1, due to him exceeding track limits.

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Yuki Tsunoda moved on to the next phase of qualifying and eventually qualified in place eighth ahead of the Aston Martins. This brilliant qualifying by the 23-year-old rubbed further salt in the Australian’s wounds.

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The lap itself I was happy with. I felt like I got everything out of it. And then when I saw it still wasn't good enough, let's say, compared to Yuki. I'm still a bit puzzled because I know what those laps normally mean. So, I crossed the line, being like 'Yeah, that was a good one. Obviously, the time got deleted, but the lap itself was definitely the best quali lap I've done this year.
Daniel Ricciardo said in an interview with Autosport

The 34-year-old admitted that he was happy with his final attempt during the Q1 session. However, he was stunned to see Tsunoda’s time in comparison to him, the former gained a huge amount of time when compared to Ricciardo. This confused the eight-time Grand Prix winner on where he was losing time to his counterpart. He will dwell deeper into finding out the root cause for the same ahead of tomorrow’s 58-lap Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo reveals RB changed quite a few parts on his VCARB 01 ahead of Australian GP

Ricciardo is the hometown hero in Melbourne, and the team wanted to provide him with every chance to score points this weekend. After the race in Saudi Arabia, the team discovered a few discrepancies in its two cars. Subsequently, the team decided to change parts of the Aussie’s car to optimize it for the ongoing Australian GP weekend.

RB driver Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo (Via: Imago)

After qualifying, Ricciardo talked about the changes made to his car.

After Saudi, we saw some things across cars. The team changed quite a lot and gave me quite a few new parts for this weekend to address some of those issues and concerns. And it looked like it was better. But I still, let's say, I'm still not fully convinced, because like I said, we still feel like we're struggling more than we normally are in a car that I'm pretty happy with.
Daniel Ricciardo said in an interview with Autosport

The 34-year-old explained that due to differences between the two cars, the team decided to put new parts on his VCARB 01. After the changes, Ricciardo felt a lot at home with the chassis.

However, this increased comfortability with the car did not result in a better qualifying. Despite Ricciardo’s tough outing during today’s running, he will give his all tomorrow to provide his hometown fans with some much-deserved entertainment.

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