Ricciardo hopes strategy will overcome 'unjust' penalty

Daniel Ricciardo is hoping that Red Bull's strategic approach to the Australian Grand Prix will enable him to overcome the 'unjust' grid penalty he was handed on Friday.

Ricciardo was fifth fastest at the end of qualifying, his time of 1:23.494s just a tenth off that of team mate Max Verstappen.

“The session itself didn’t go too badly," he said. "It started off pretty well and even in Q2 on the supersofts we were looking good.

"In the last part of Q3 we just missed a bit in the first sector," he continued. "I’m not totally sure where the time is so we’ll have to look at that."

However, Ricciardo was almost seven tenths off polesitter Lewis Hamilton's new track record. Ricciardo said that Mercedes' ability to turn up the wick in qualifying "sucks".

"It's frustrating," he said. "I think everyone else wants to see them get challenged a bit more, so that was a little bit of a punch in the stomach to everyone.

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"Obviously they're loving it, they're in a good position," he said. "But everyone else is hating it.

"I know it would be nice to be in that position, but for everyone else it sucks," he sighed. "That was like throwing a pie in everyone's face."

The Aussie will now start his home race from eight on the grid. That's a result of the three-place penalty he got for speeding under red flag conditions in FP2.

"Obviously starting eighth because of the penalty is frustrating and I thought it was unjust," he stated.

"There are reprimands, fines and other things. But to shoot me in the ankle before the season starts, well, I think they could have done better.

"I’m looking forward to coming through the field," he added. "We’re obviously better than eighth so we will try and make it happen.

"To be honest, I feel sorry for the guys in front of me tomorrow as they’re the ones I’m going to have to take my anger out on!"

Ricciardo is hoping that the team's decision to run supersofts rather than ultras in Q2 - which means they will start the race on the same set - will give them a strategic advantage later in the day

"We’re the only ones in the top 10 starting on the supersoft so hopefully that helps us," he said. "Ideally the leaders have trouble making the one stop work with the ultrasoft and we capitalise there."

Ricciardo's thoughts were echoed by team principal Christian Horner.

"We’ve elected to start on a different tyre strategy to our competitors," he said. "Hopefully that will provide different options for tomorrow."

Ricciardo said the RB14 was looking good in race trim. "The race pace looks pretty good," he confirmed. But good enough to overcome the Mighty Mercedes?

"Hopefully we can catch up," insisted Ricciardo. "Hopefully in the race they don't have as much of that. Because that's a bit scary, that mode they've got."

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