Daniel Ricciardo believes he "didn't drive shit" despite qualifying a lowly 14th for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ricciardo set the pace in the opening practice session of the weekend on Thursday night (AEDT), but his RB wasn't competitive in the cool conditions under lights in qualifying.
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, picked up right where he left off at the end of 2023 by claiming pole for Sunday morning's (AEDT) race.
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Ricciardo's lap initially lifted him into 10th place and out of the elimination zone at the end of the second part of qualifying, but was immediately demoted as the cars behind him on track went quicker.
The Aussie said 14th was 'disappointing', but the team isn't "worried or panicked".
"I didn't drive shit or anything, but I never really crossed the line being like 'yeah, I did a clear lap'," he said.
"There was always some parts on the track where I knew there was lap time, but I never really was able to put it together.
"Even if I improved a little bit, then I'd probably lose a bit in the next corner, so it kind of see-sawed a bit. I was never progressively gaining."
Ricciardo's teammate Yuki Tsunoda will start 11th having narrowly missed a Q3 berth.
Oscar Piastri will start eighth, having qualified less than a tenth slower than teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri, too, felt like he left time on the track in his final run.
"The first (lap) was shocking, the second one was not too bad, I felt," he told Sky Sports after the session.
"It's been a tricky day … I haven't felt as comfortable in the car as I did (Thursday), just struggled more and more.
"I think Q1 and Q2 I really struggled a lot and it finally came together a bit more, but even still I didn't feel perfectly happy.
"I have some things to look into as to why that was, but I think the positive is I'm eighth … and the gap to the cars that are a long way further up is only small so that's a big positive.
"Bahrain doesn't suit us that well, but we'll have to wait and see … we're there or thereabouts."
Verstappen took pole by 0.228 of a second over the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell. Carlos Sainz will line up fourth, ahead of Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, the McLarens, Lewis Hamilton, and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg – the surprise of the session.
The lights will go out at 2am AEDT Sunday morning.
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