Ricciardo: Verstappen quicker is tolerable as this isn’t for pole

Daniel Ricciardo has given a tongue in cheek dig at Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen after the Dutch driver beat him by 0.002s in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix as he prepares to serve a grid penalty.

The Australian driver beat his teammate to pole position two weeks ago in Mexico which led to an angry reaction from Verstappen following Ricciardo’s celebrations at the feat during Red Bull’s front-row lockout.

While both Red Bulls returned to being slower than Mercedes and Ferrari in Brazil, leaving them fifth and sixth respectively in qualifying, Verstappen beat his teammate by two-thousandths of a second leading Ricciardo to a sly dig.

“Max got me by two-thousandths,” Ricciardo said. “Similar margin to last week [but reversed]. Fortunately, this isn’t for pole so it is a little bit more tolerable.

“It was all right, I was fairly solid. I have a bit of work to do from 11th but I think we’ll have a decent car.

“In the end the pace was not that bad on the low fuel stuff. We will be pretty decent tomorrow afternoon.”

Ricciardo will start from 11^th on the grid following a five-place grid penalty for a turbocharger change following damaged sustained accidentally when a Mexican fire marshal squirted extinguisher foam in his fiery engine after his mechanical DNF from the race in Mexico.

Verstappen felt his Red Bull had more to give after ending qualifying 0.497s off Lewis Hamilton’s pole position lap time at Interlagos but accepts fifth place on the grid was likely to be his maximum result in qualifying.

“I think in the car it was not the best balance I had in a qualifying session this year but I don’t think it would have changed the world,” Verstappen said. “I think we would have been closer to Kimi but it is like it is.

“Hopefully with the setup I have today it will be better for tomorrow when it’s going to be a bit warmer.”