Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull can no longer blame its power unit as the reason it is losing out to Toro Rosso having been beaten in qualifying in Spain.

Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen will start from fifth and sixth respectively after an impressive performance at the Circuit de Catalunya. With Daniil Kvyat the highest-placed Red Bull in eighth - 0.6s slower than Verstappen - there was a clear performance difference and a frustrated Ricciardo says the team needs to investigate the reasons after he faded to tenth place in the final part of qualifying.

"To be honest, I thought we’d done pretty well today up until Q3," Ricciardo said. "I thought practice, Q1 and Q2 we’d adapted as well as we could with the track time we’d had. In Q3 it was looking half decent and then into the third sector, which is definitely my strongest sector out of the three in qualifying, I lost all my grip there, lost the rear into 10 and then it’s a snowball effect for the whole last sector. All my gain was lost and right now there’s no explanation.

"I lost a lot of time. Compared to my Q2 in lap, that I aborted, I was half a second down. So we lost time, but I don’t know why, I don’t know if the wind changed or what but it was frustrating. Even if we did put the lap together somehow we’re still behind Toro Rosso. "

Asked why Toro Rosso is quicker, Ricciardo replied: "I don’t know. Hats off to them of course, but we have to be in front of them. To be more than half a second behind it’s not just the engine where we’re struggling."

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Spanish Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

33 mins ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

2 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

3 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

3 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las…

4 hours ago

2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas,…

4 hours ago