BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Daniel Ricciardo said he only had himself to blame after crashing out of qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver hit the wall on the exit of Turn 6 during one of his early Q3 runs and damaged his rear-left wheel against the wall. The accident marked the end of his session and left him tenth on the grid for Sunday's race.
"For sure I am not blaming the car or anything," he said. "I was just trying to carry a bit of speed through that combination and though Turn 6 I tried to carry some speed and then the rear kind of went away a little bit ... it happened so quick.
"I tried to power through it, but the wall comes back on you and the rear was gone so as soon as I hit it I felt it was too big of a hit [to carry on]. I could see the rim was damaged, so it was the consequence of trying to get a bit more out of it in Q3.
"I felt like the track temperature was coming down and the track was getting better, so there was margin, particularly in Q3, to improve. I was chasing that little bit too much. I'm a bit frustrated of course but not really anything to blame other than trying."
Six of the cars in the top ten places on the grid are powered by Mercedes engines, underlining the strength of the Brixworth-built power unit in Baku. But Ricciardo, whose Red Bull has Renault power, believes a slipstream down Baku's two kilometre straight could be enough to make up for the power deficit and attempt a pass into Turn 1.
"[Tyre] strategy is limited but you could find a similar situation to Monaco where perhaps an overcut is not that far off an undercut," he said. "So strategy might not be that straight forward, there might be some opportunities there. And then if I am quicker than the guys in front, you can overtake. With such a long straight, even if we are against say a Mercedes, Force India or Williams, if you get a tow then the tow is bigger than the horsepower deficit.
"So if we are quicker we should be able to overtake. So try and be quick and make an under or overcut work. It sounds easy!"