Ricciardo explains Budapest Q2 elimination

Daniel Ricciardo put his shock Q2 elimination in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix down to poor fortune rather than poor tactics from his Red Bull team. Ricciardo will start Sunday's race 12th, having previously talked up his chances of challenging for the victory in Budapest.

Red Bull endured a Saturday to forget in the rain as Max Verstappen could only qualify seventh after Ricciardo's misstep.

The Australian was undone in Q2 as the arrival of a rain shower left him unable to improve his lap times during the session, having seen an earlier flying lap curtailed by yellow flags after Lance Stroll spun at Turn 9 and lost his front wing.

Ricciardo had previously said that he would consider his title chances to be lost of he did not win at the Hungaroring, but he did not look back in anger at a costly session.

He said: "The rain came, the first guy on track was getting the best track and then it got worse and worse, not only to be further in the pack but you also needed to get that first lap in.

"Stroll spun in front of me, I had to abort that lap and the following lap was too wet for the inter. The last sector was just trying to survive.

"So we had to put the extreme on and the track was nowhere near what it was at the beginning. The first lap had to count and we had the guy in front so I was just unlucky."

In truth, Ricciardo had been lucky to make it out of Q1 as he took to a drying track on the soft compound - all 19 rivals were fitted with the ultrasofts - and circled around the drop zone before managing to pull himself clear with his final lap.

"We took a risk in Q1 to use the soft," he said. "In hindsight for sure we would go on the ultra and just be safe because that was too close.

"We did have a soft to use for Q1 in dry conditions. It was in the plan, but if it wasn't against the plan then it was closer than we wanted it to be."