Verstappen and Ricciardo will start Sunday's race in 7th and 12th; Lights out at 2.10pm, build-up from 12.30pm on Sky F1
Thursday 6 December 2018 12:35, UK
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were hugely frustrated with the Red Bull car's performance in Saturday's wet weather at the Hungarian GP, claiming their qualifying was like "driving on ice".
The team suffered their worst qualifying result of the season in Budapest as Verstappen finished seventh, behind Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly, while Ricciardo was knocked out in Q2.
Hamilton takes pole as Red Bull struggle
Their struggles were a huge surprise considering they had hailed the Hungaroring as one of their best tracks of the season coming into the weekend, and wanted heavy rain in qualifying to give them a better chance of pole as the RB14 usually flourishes in the wet.
But a bemused Verstappen told reporters: "My car was just lacking a lot of grip. Especially on the extreme tyres, we were really struggling.
"Even on the intermediates it was not fantastic. I don't know why, because otherwise we would have changed it."
He continued: "The whole corner to be honest I was just sliding. Mid-corner I had no grip, no traction, like driving on ice."
Verstappen insisted the team had "no chance to fight for pole" in the dry or wet conditions, but was angry about missing an opportunity to challenge higher up the grid.
The Dutchman also usually impresses in the rain, but added: "If you don't have the gear then what can you do?"
Ricciardo missed out on Q3 entirely after exiting the pits late on the intermediate tyres, and then having to abort his lap because of a Lance Stroll spin.
The conditions then worsened in the second portion of qualifying, meaning Ricciardo had to switch to full wet tyres, essentially ending his hopes of making the top-10 as he finished the session in 12th.
"Me going out of Q2 was obviously a big disappointment, but I don't know if that was a bigger disappointment than Max being only P7 in Q3 in the wet," the Australian said.
"I'm sure everyone was thinking that maybe one car's out, but maybe one car can get pole. We wanted the wet but then it didn't happen."
Expanding on his car struggles, Ricciardo claimed: "It just felt like we had no grip. Why? I'm not sure. Our car is usually really strong in the wet. I imagine it's something with tyres."
