Daniel Ricciardo was one of the heroes of the Miami sprint, in which he achieved a very respectable 4th place, but just a few hours later the situation completely changed and the Australian could not even qualify for the second qualifying session.
But it should also be remembered that he still has to serve a fine for violating the rules set in Shanghai, and as a result, Ricciardo will start the Miami Grand Prix from the last position. At the same time, Yuki Tsunoda, his Visa RB teammate, will start 10th.
Daniel Ricciardo (18th): “This was one of those cases that confirms that in Formula 1 everything can change very quickly. Yesterday I saw how Lando Norris’ car slid very fast all over the track from the start of the lap in the last qualifying session on soft tires. To be honest, the same thing happened to me now.
The car started to slide already in the first corner, was destabilized at the entrance to the seventh corner, then I was carried to the side of the road and all these problems followed one after the other. But the strange thing was that all this manifested itself from the very beginning of the circle. In general, in our sport it happens that everything can end well, but then the situation suddenly changes dramatically.
We will analyze what happened, because it seemed that everything was fine, but on the second set of soft rubber there was no grip at all. In general, we understand that our car allows us to fight for higher positions, it is not 18th in terms of speed. Let’s hope we find the answer to why tires were so ineffective.
Let’s see how it goes tomorrow. Because of the penalty I have to start from the last position. The image contrasts sharply with what happened that morning and it is clear that there is nothing to be happy about. After the sprint, when we showed the fourth result, I told the team that we have to allow ourselves to be happy for at least half an hour, because everything can change very quickly. There is so much that is unpredictable in our sport.”
Yuki Tsunoda (10th): “The team did a great job and the car made a great impression, although I couldn’t reveal its potential yesterday. But today I was able to qualify for the final and I don’t rule out that there was an opportunity to perform even better. Overall. I can’t say I’m completely proud of the lap I did.
I’m very happy to start in the top ten, it’s much better than my position at the start of the sprint and I plan to do everything I can to earn points. I think we were able to set a good pace in the short race, although only me and one of the Williams drivers did so on soft tyres. My teammate at least managed 4th place on Medium tires, which is encouraging. Overall, everything will depend on how well I cope with the task in the Grand Prix.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.