Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren "scratching our heads" after shock qualifying exit

Styrian Grand Prix

Ricciardo and McLaren 'scratching their heads' after shock qualifying exit

Ricciardo's struggles at McLaren returned at the Red Bull Ring

Ewan Gale

Saturday 26 June 2021 17:19

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Daniel Ricciardo claims McLaren has been left 'scratching its heads' as to why he experienced such a pace drop-off from Friday practice following his shock exit from qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix.

The Australian had impressed in second practice, finishing second on the timesheet but his struggles in F1 this season continued as he will start 13th, in stark contrast to team-mate Lando Norris who lines up third.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 what had happened, Ricciardo replied he was "not so sure".

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He added: "We just lost a lot of speed overnight. It is not even quali we were slow, it was already this morning.

"We put the car on track and we were quite a bit off. It's another session where we are a little bit scratching our heads and it was a long way off. Again, at times it was like a second or something so a bit strange.

"Obviously, yesterday was really strong and encouraging so I wouldn't say there are many answers at the moment why we obviously struggled a lot today.

"We will try and figure it out but we definitely didn't expect to be here after yesterday."

McLaren's Friday speed "a long time ago"

It had felt like Ricciardo was turning a corner with his McLaren struggles after an encouraging French Grand Prix weekend last time out before his Friday form.

After the qualifying performance, however, Ricciardo revealed he was unable to go any faster without leaving the track surface.

"There is definitely a bit of set-up and stuff," he said of his issues. "I didn't think we had the perfect car yesterday but the lap time came.

"Today, I felt in some areas I was driving to the limit of the car, like I couldn't go faster because I would basically just run off the track.

"We were slower pretty much everywhere so not sure at the moment. Obviously, we will have a look at the data.

"It seems like yesterday was a long time ago."