After a troubled start to the season, Daniel Ricciardo is finally creeping his way back up to speed and almost managed to gain an incredible result out of the qualifying session at Monza. The Australian was on course to claim what could have been the first top-3 start since his Red Bull years.

However, in the end, Ricciardo lost both P3 and P4 by a measly 0.029s and will hence, start the sprint race from P5. This necessarily wasn’t the case during the initial Q3 run where he was over 0.3s down on his teammate.

Hence, the Honey Badger revealed that he was enraged, as he ended up pushing his McLaren to its absolute limits and almost held on to P3. Nevertheless, Ricciardo was ultimately 0.006s slower than Lando Norris, which is impeccable news, considering his poor run so far this season.

What did Daniel Ricciardo say?

During the post-qualifying interview, Ricciardo opened up about how he managed to gain over 0.2s out of the final sector on his final Q3 lap.

“Yeah, I was angry. That was just pure rage. Pure rage and wrestling the car. I knew there was time in the last sector. So, I knew what I had there. But, yeah, the first two were just kind of even or whatever you call it. I knew I had to pull something out in the last sector,” he said.

Yes, it could be painful to miss out on P3 by less than one-tenth of a second. However, it is the sprint qualifying that matters the most. Ricciardo is holding onto a McLaren, that has quite the straight-line speed. Hence, a good start could lead the Australian to overtake both his teammate and the Red Bull of Verstappen, going into turn 1.

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Ricciardo disgusted with P5

Ricciardo acknowledged he was certain that the P3 was his, but little did he knew at that point in time that he would be missing out on the position by such a marginal difference.

“I thought it was enough, I think I was third for like a short moment in time and then it was fourth and fifth. So, that was probably what hurt the most. I actually thought I was third, so, then Tom told me I was fifth and told me the gaps. Pfft! Umm, yeah,” Ricciardo said.

Overall, there ends Friday’s action. And it has been a strong start for McLaren at Monza after enduring a tough race weekend at Zandvoort. Starting from P4 and P5, both the drivers hold enough pace to race against Verstappen.

What’s more, with Valtteri Bottas set to start from P20 on Sunday, the McLaren duo have got themselves a chance to secure a front-row start for Sunday’s main race. But, can they accomplish this near-impossible feat?

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