Last race’s podium sitter, Daniel Ricciardo, had an incident during his flying lap in Q2 as he crashed into the barriers damaging his rear wing.

Although he managed to bring his car back into the pits and also made it into Q3, Renault’s pit crew failed to get his car ready on time.

The Australian, in the end, was forced to settle for a P10 finish; however, he lines up ahead of his teammate, which could be a source of solace for the Honeybadger.

Following the qualifying session, Ricciardo revealed that his crew was extremely close to getting his car ready for a run in Q3. “The team actually got close to getting be back on the track for Q3,” he said.

“I honestly think one more minute and we were on track. So, It’s a bit of a shame obviously I can see them working hard trying to make it work for me.”

But Ricciardo showed no disappointment as he said that he is still focused on tomorrow’s race. “So yeah, it was a bit of a letdown for them. We’ll make it happen tomorrow and yeah, move up,” he added.

His crash still ended up being a positive for the Australian as the incident disrupted others’ laps helping him stay intact within the Top-10.

Daniel Ricciardo partially blames the traffic for the crash

Ricciardo felt that the slower cars around him caused him to brake a bit more into the turn which made him lose his rear. “Yeah, I spun. But, you know, the cars, as we all know, are quite sensitive,” he said.

“I had to get through a bit of lapped cars. Obviously, they’re off the racing line. But turning in and braking; it depends where the wind is coming from. But I felt as soon as I got in, I lost the rear.”

But it is not all over for the Australian at the moment. Looking to start the race from P10, Ricciardo is likely to bring his car home with a set of points, that is if all goes well.

On top of that, the fact that this circuit is a tricky one to drive on could induce more such incidents during the race to thin out the herd. Hence, tomorrow’s race will be entirely about staying out of trouble and bringing the car home in one piece.