Mystery loss of grip behind Q1 exit looked same as Norris had

Daniel Ricciardo reported a bizarre loss of grip which prevented him progressing beyond the first round in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.

The RB driver believes the sudden change in performance was the same as that Lando Norris experienced in the final round of qualifying for the sprint race on Friday.

Ricciardo’s Q1 elimination came as a blow after he finished a strong fourth in the sprint race earlier on Saturday. “It’s one of those things, the sport can change so quickly,” he told the official F1 channel.

“Honestly, I saw Lando’s lap in Q3 yesterday where straight away from the start of the lap you can see he was sliding his rears everywhere on the soft, he obviously struggled a lot,” said Ricciardo. “I honestly felt the same.

“Already on that last set, coming out of turn one, I started sliding. I had a wobble into seven then went wide and it was a spiral effect.

“But what was strange is it started already at the start of the lap. So it’s one of those things with this sport where it treats you nice until it doesn’t.

“We’ll look into it, but everything seemed fine approaching the lap. So, it’s one of those things, we just simply didn’t have the grip on that second set. As simple as that.”

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Ricciardo’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda reached Q3 and will start from 10th on the grid. Ricciardo started the sprint race from fourth.

“I honestly, genuinely think we’re not an 18th-place car,” said Ricciardo. “Hopefully we understand why sometimes the tyres behave as they do.

“I chatted a little bit to Lando yesterday, we didn’t go into detail, but I just said ‘it looked like you were on used hard tyres in your Q3 run’ It was as clear as day how bad it looked.

“So hopefully we can maybe get an answer on that. But we’re quicker than obviously what we show, we’ll just see what tomorrow brings.”

The RB driver picked up a three-place grid penalty at the previous round which will put him at an even greater disadvantage for the grand prix.

“We have the penalty so I think we’re dead last,” he said. “So a contrast to this morning.

“Obviously I’m not happy. But it’s also one of those things. This morning, that’s why it’s important I told the team, let’s at least enjoy this for the next 30 minutes, because this sport is, highly unpredictable.”

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