F1 driver sheds light on alarming struggle in Miami Grand Prix qualifying

Daniel Ricciardo suffered a disastrous qualifying session ahead of the Miami Grand Prix just hours after finishing fourth in the Sprint race and scoring his first points of the season.

The Australian qualified in 18th place for RB at the Miami International Autodrome on a gripless surface that even pole sitter Max Verstappen found tricky to master.

Earlier in the day, he performed admirably in the 100km Sprint race, passing Red Bull's Sergio Perez at the start to move into third before finishing in fourth.

The four points he scored provided vindication for his hard work after a tough opening five rounds. However, a lackluster qualifying just hours later confirmed Ricciardo to a penultimate row of the grid.

The high track temperature caused havoc with Lando Norris on Friday in Sprint qualifying, as he floundered on the soft tyre in the final part of the session despite setting competitive times on the more durable medium tyre.

“Already on that last set [of tyres] coming out of Turn 1 I started sliding, had a wobble into Turn 7, then went wide and it was a spiral effect,” Ricciardo said, via formula1.com. “What was strange that it started already at the start of the lap, so it’s one of those things with this sport where it treats you nicely until it doesn’t.

“We’ll look into it, but everything seemed fine approaching the lap, so it’s one of those things. We simply didn’t have the grip on that second set – simple as that.”

Despite struggling over a single lap in qualifying, the race pace looked significantly stronger in the Sprint as Ricciardo was able to resist immense pressure from Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri. 

The 34-year-old is optimistic that his RB has the performance to move forward from the back of the field.

“I genuinely think we’re not an 18th-place car and it was just … hopefully we understand why sometimes the tyres behave as they do,” Ricciardo said. “I chatted a little bit to Lando yesterday, we didn’t go into detail, but I just said, ‘It looked like you were on used hard tyres on your Q3 run’, as it was clear as day how bad it looked.”

Ricciardo didn't race on this track last season while he was on the sidelines and finished 13th during the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in 2022 for McLaren.

The RB driver has a three-place grid drop for overtaking during the Safety Car period in China, meaning he will start Sunday's race 20th and last.