Daniel Ricciardo‘s hopes of a podium finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix have been dashed due to wild weather during qualifying in Sao Paulo.
Winds of over 100km trackside saw the roof ripped off the grandstand in terrifying scenes for spectators – and the Aussie was eliminated in the first round of qualifying.
An early error proved costly, with Ricciardo to start at 17th on the grid in his AlphaTauri come Sunday.
‘It’s frustrating because we were definitely faster than what we showed, but we didn’t get it right on the last lap,’ he said.
‘I didn’t get the tyres in the right spot for the start of the lap, so I came too hot into turn 1, and we lost a chunk of time in the first sector.
Daniel Ricciardo ‘s hopes of a podium finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix have been dashed due to wild weather during qualifying in Sao Paulo
The AlphaTauri driver was eliminated in the first round of qualifying after an early error proved costly
Here’s the video of the grandstand roof collapsing at the circuit 😱Gusts of 104 km/h were recorded at the airport, as per @sdietzf1.We hope everyone is safe 🙏 #F1 #BrazilGPpic.twitter.com/5BuNTjNX0y
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) November 3, 2023
‘From then on, the lap started to spiral a little.
‘I’ll have a look at how we can extract the performance for the remainder of the weekend.’
Conditions were brutal, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – who claimed pole position – labelling qualifying ‘insane.’
The newly-crowned three-time world champion still managed to show his class, clocking a best lap in one minute and 10.727 seconds to outpace Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.294 seconds.
‘We didn’t know when the storm was coming and when it would hit,’ Verstappen said.
‘It was insane weather! My laps felt terrible and Charles [Leclerc] and I discussed this and the hectic wind we had in the final laps.
‘For me, the race, I think it will be very close.’
Meanwhile, Aussie young gun Oscar Piastri, who looked solid in the early qualifying runs, spun off the track in Q3.
He will start at 10th spot on the grid and is also hoping the weather improves.
