Ricciardo 'surprised' by lowly Friday classification

McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo said he was surprised by his low-key performance on Friday at the Red Bull Ring, insisting his car was lacking a bit of pace but "didn't feel that bad".

Last weekend, the Aussie was left stranded in Q2 while teammate Lando Norris shone in the qualifying shootout which he finished as high as P4. And on race day, Ricciardo was hit by a power glitch that wrecked his efforts to score points.

The weekend was a bit of a reflection of the 32-year-old's struggles with his new team year-to-date, and Friday's performance portended to another difficult round of racing in Austria.

But Ricciardo played down his underperformance and even reckoned that he had made "a good step" on Friday.

"I am a bit surprised with the classification," he admitted. "We’re just lacking a little bit, but there’s nothing that feels out of place in the car, like I assume it’s probably just a little bit everywhere.

"I know there’s not many corners here, but maybe we’re just missing half a tenth everywhere, then that just adds up to half a second or something, and that’s what we need.

"It’s probably just some fine tuning tonight. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel.

"I think like with my driving and the points that I missed out last week, and areas I was lacking, I think I definitely made a good step today.

"So it’s just trying to then just make another one tomorrow, and we’ll be in a decent place."

• Read also: Norris reveals off-track differences between Ricciardo and Sainz

Part of Ricciardo's quandary is adapting his driving to McLaren's MCL35M, an issue the Aussie says is a work in progress.

"I’m still trying to maximise the driving style that the car currently likes," he added. "That’s what I’ve been trying to work on. We’re getting there.

"I think today was definitely some progress, we changed a few things with the car to kind of help me get that feeling. That was positive.

"Last Friday, we were actually looking pretty good, so if you look at the classification of last week to this week, you’ll think we’re miles off. Then obviously Saturday changed completely.

"I have confidence that we can move forward for tomorrow, as opposed to stay here or move back. That’s why I probably feel even a bit better today, but we’re obviously not there on the timesheets.

"So yeah, I’m not going to panic. A little bit of fine tuning, and I think we’ll find what we need tomorrow."

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