Daniel Ricciardo was at a loss to explain his subdued pace in Friday’s qualifying in Jeddah, which the RB charger concluded well down the order in 14th position.
The Australian driver made the Q2 cut but ended the second segment almost half a second adrift from the threshold that would have propelled him into Q3.
It was Ricciardo’s second P14 finish in succession in qualifying, but while he believed that he hadn’t performed to the best of his ability a week ago in Bahrain, he felt that something was amiss with his equipment in Jeddah.
"Very frustrating," the Australian said. "I think last week I was frustrated just more with myself because I knew there was time on the table, it was on me. But today is honestly a bit more of a mystery, I would say.
"The balance, okay, a few corners which you struggle with a little bit here and there, but simply in Q2 when everyone's able to find even half a second or something, we just plateaued.
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"I felt like I couldn't get any more out of it with what I had. It wasn't like I had massive understeer or oversteer. It was simply, just, we didn't have what felt like grip compared to the others.
"Even if I had another set of tyres now... I know where the time was, but I don't know how we could have got it in that session. I'm hopeful we find something, because half a second is kind of crazy."
Tsunoda was able to power his way into Q3 where he secured a spot on the fifth row for Saturday’s race, which further baffled Ricciardo as the pair had been pretty much evenly matched until qualifying.
Obviously, he did a good job but it's not like he's been really comfortable and I haven't been,” commented the Aussie.
"Coming into qualifying it was pretty evenly matched and in Q1 it looked that way, and then he – and pretty much everyone else – was able to make that step and we simply struggled.
"Being that far behind is frustrating, and being 14th when we're obviously fighting for points, it doesn't help. I know that's not the gap."
On the other side of the RB garage, Tsunoda was obviously satisfied to make the top-ten shootout in Saudi Arabia, his fifth incursion into Q3 in 23 races.
"Definitely happy with the result," he said after qualifying P9. "The team did a fantastic job, they gave me such a good car.
"I can see their happy faces after going into Q3. This gives us extra confidence for the future as well.”
But the Japanese driver still believes that scoring points this evening in Jeddah will require a flawless performance from both team and driver.
"It won't be easy and there is still an Aston Martin and Ferrari behind, so we have to get it absolutely right with strategy, everything and also myself," he added.
"I'm expecting Haas will also be pretty fast. Anything can happen here and it won't be easy to overtake, so hopefully I can use that my advantage."
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