- Monaco GP - Qualifying
Frustrated Ricciardo 'left a bit on the table'
Daniel Ricciardo admits he is frustrated not to have taken the fight to Mercedes in qualifying after seeing Red Bull's performance drop off in Monaco qualifying.
Ricciardo's pace in FP3 seemed to set up a close battle for pole in qualifying but it did not materialise, though the Australian was 'best of the rest' in qualifying for the second race in a row. An error coming through Tabac appeared to compromise one flying lap and he ended up four tenths down on Nico Rosberg's pole time.
Ricciardo was in a rather awkward press conference with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton after qualifying, and said all three of them had reason to be unhappy.
"I think all three of us don't seem to be too pleased with ourselves," Ricciardo said. "I think we left a bit on the table. We fought the car pretty hard in qualifying and trying to find a bit more from it. I thought I was getting around it OK but coming up to Turn 8 I just lost the rear completely on exit and pretty much the lap was gone after that. I'm frustrated; I think we could have been much closer."
Ricciardo says he is still growing used to life at the front but will be left wondering what might have been after Q3.
"It was a shame because I think in the first part of Q3 we still had a little bit more in there. [I'm] a bit frustrated to be honest. It was definitely nice to fight at the front on the field and around here it's a lot of fun, definitely. It's always nice when you've got a quick car but around here it does feel awesome.
"The last lap there, I went for one last push and just didn't really get the grip back that I was hoping for and just couldn't improve on the lap I'd done in the first part of Q3."
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