22 October 2023 , 00:56
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Daniel Ricciardo admitted he is suffering from "race rust" after losing a place in the United States Grand Prix Sprint.
The Aussie qualified 11th for the short-form race earlier on Saturday. That put him just three places off the points positions in his AlphaTauri, but he ended up dropping down to 12th by the end.
Still, he got the better of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in both sessions. That will give the 34-year-old a lot of confidence at his first race weekend for two months, having been sidelined with a broken hand that required surgery.
Sunday's Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas will be just his third of the season, meaning he is far less familiar with his car than everyone else on the grid is with their own respective machines. He pointed at that as the reason for his underwhelming result in the Sprint and dismissed the suggestion he might still be feeling some pain.
"I'm feeling alright," he said, smiling as usual. "I think that was a big thing also, taking enough time off that I come back and I am not [saying, 'Oh yeah, I had a bad result because my hand hurts', or something – that's wasting everyone's time.
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"I feel like I gave it the right amount of time to come back and be confident with it. The hand hasn't affected me this weekend so it's been good. I think today was better. I think the race... I hate saying this because I am very experienced, but this year I am not very experienced so there was a little bit of race rust, a few little decisions on track which I was like, 'Oh, I should know better'.
"Look, it's a little bit of learning for tomorrow. [I'm] not too concerned. It was very nice to be back out there. From yesterday to the qualifying this morning I made a really good step so I was happy with that.
"I apologised for another P11 because the running joke with the team is that someone is qualifying P11. Yuki yesterday, me today. Q3 is obviously the target for us – it's normally a big achievement but we always seem to be a little short. I was pretty happy with the lap."
He did have one highlight in the Sprint, though, and was very happy with his overtake on Lance Stroll. He swept around the outside of the Aston Martin at turn one, to make up for the fact he had lost a place to the Canadian earlier in the session.
"[Stroll] got me into turn 12 which I was kicking myself for – that was race rust, where I was a bit frustrated with myself for letting one go," added Ricciardo. "I got him back a few laps later. I liked that move - that one made me feel better about myself."