Mercedes pace 'disheartening' for Ricciardo and Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo admitted it was "disheartening" to qualify six tenths adrift of Spanish Grand Prix polesitter Lewis Hamilton as Red Bull were once again shut out of the fight for pole position. Both Ricciardo and Max Verstappen had displayed impressive pace in practice, but they had no answer to Mercedes or Ferrari when it mattered most.

Ricciardo and Verstappen had split the Mercedes in Saturday's practice session, but they were familiarly distant by the end of the day.

The Australian's decision to put soft tyres on at the end of Q3 gave an intriguing angle on the end of the session, with Sebastian Vettel trying to outdo Hamilton on the harder compound, which allowed for greater pace in the final sector.

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And after qualifying slower than his team-mate Max Verstappen, Ricciardo was not in his usual sunny mood.

"I didn't really know what to expect, you never really know until qualifying," he told Sky Sports.

"Friday paints one picture, but you don't know what's going to happen overall. In Q3 we both put in a good lap, the supersofts weren't comfortable so I went for the softs in Q3 and Mercedes put in some belters at the end.

"I don't know what more I could have done. With the laps we put in I thought we would only be a couple of tenths from pole, not six or seven.

"It's a little bit disheartening but obviously they were quicker. I'll try tomorrow!"

Verstappen added: "We don't have that power mode, we lost more speed from the friction in the tyres - it's all a bit more painful for us, especially in Q3.

"It all gets a bit harder and together with my final lap I couldn't continue from turn one. Top 3 wasn't possible today, it was tricky.

"I don't think many people will choose super-softs tomorrow, it may go faster but it will fall apart. Most people will choose soft and medium."