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Ricciardo surprised by Verstappen's poor qualifying: 'He won't be happy!'
- Jeroen Immink
Max Verstappen came no further than seventh during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. At Monza - where Lando Norris managed to capture pole position - the RB20's balance once again proved to be less than ideal. VCARB driver Daniel Ricciardo saw Verstappen struggle at the Temple of Speed.
Ricciardo: 'Verstappen won't be happy'
"Max did a 19.6 in Q2. So yeah, strange that obviously, they struggled or, yeah, let's say he struggled in particular in Q3," Ricciardo said when asked by GPblog.
Ricciardo knows Verstappen very well as a former teammate of the Dutchman at Red Bull, and of course, still drives in the Red Bull family with VCARB. "I didn't see his first lap, his second lap, but it looked like someone went off in front of him, so there was a bit of gravel through the Lesmos. I don't know, maybe that, well, I'd say it definitely would have cost him a bit of time. Because I had it in Q1, and I know it cost me some time. So yeah, maybe there's a little bit there, but ultimately looked like they struggled a bit today. So I guess you guys will have the luxury of hearing what he has to say soon. But I don't imagine he'll be too happy today,' Ricciardo said.
Ricciardo will start from P12 tomorrow. The Australian was more than half a second faster than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Afterwards, 'The Honey Badger' therefore looked satisfied to be able to beat his teammate.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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