Ricciardo fears he has lost engine after “big failure”

Ricciardo’s Red Bull ground to a halt halfway around a lap during a rain-affected Q1, causing a red flag. Although he was P1 at the time, he slipped back to last as the track dried.

“It sounded a little bit sick, that was the first thing, then I lost a bit of power and heard some weird turbo noises,” he said.

“I still don’t know much about how cars work but I think I know what a turbo sounds like, and I could hear it not behaving.  

“It stayed running and then it all switched off. I thought I could nurse it back to the pits but then everything went off.

“It’s definitely a big failure of some sort, and we couldn’t save it for the session. Obviously I don’t know how this now affects us for the rest of the season, probably losing an engine now, but maybe it’s repairable.”

Ricciardo will start on the back row of the grid, ahead only of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, and already had a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox before qualifying.

“I thought five grid places were bad, but we’re definitely at the back now,” he said. “It’s disappointing because we know in these conditions give us a bit more of an opportunity, we were quick at the beginning there.

“Obviously tomorrow is another day – I’m just disappointed not to be able to show more of what we can do in qualifying. We’ve got some work ahead of us to get back in it."

Of his race chances, he added: “Either in these [damp conditions] or dry we can fight through to get inside the top 10. We were quick out of the box, and I saw Max jump up there, so we have a good car.

“This weather could help me out, get me a few more positions. We’ll see.”