No excuses for Verstappen qualifying advantage - Ricciardo

Verstappen has started ahead of his teammate in each of the last four races, although on each occasion Ricciardo would go on to enjoy better fortunes on race day.

“I’ve made a couple of mistakes here and there,” said Ricciardo of his recent qualifying record against Verstappen. “Max has also just been quick.

"I can’t take anything away from Max. He’s been driving really well.

"Obviously last year we pushed each other a lot. I think the longer we stay teammates, the more we’re going to keep pushing each other.

“He’s been really just on it, and you could see he’s really comfortable with the car. I think he’s just been getting more confident as well in himself, and that’s been helping him.

"From my side I think I’ve just got to be more perfect, make less mistakes. But no excuse, he’s just been driving well."

Ricciardo said that Red Bull can find no explanation as to why Verstappen’s car has been the focus of the team’s unreliability problems in recent races.

The Dutchman was an early casualty in both Montreal and Baku due to mechanical issues.

“He’s outqualified me in the last four races, so maybe he’s just driving too fast, and then the engine is not keeping up," Ricciardo joked.

"To be honest there’s nothing we’ve seen, he’s not over-revving the engine or doing something like this, which explains the reason.

“I don’t think the right word is 'good luck, bad luck', but it’s more or less that. I don’t think he’s caused it for anything.

"Sure, he’s been more unfortunate in the last races, I’ve been more fortunate with reliability. But I don’t think there’s a real reason for that.”

Track "not our worst, not our best"

Ricciardo remains hopeful that Red Bull will be competitive at its home track this weekend, but cautioned that the long straights will favour rivals.

“We’ll see. Hopefully at least fifth, and ideally we can get closer.

"We are getting stronger, and this track is not our worst, not our best – Max podiumed here last year – so maybe we can do OK. But I think Mercedes and Ferrari will still be quite quick here.

“Particularly Mercedes, they’ll be strong. They’re normally quick here, they were quick in Baku, and they still have an extra setting it seems than everyone else.

"Here the first sector is more or less all horsepower, so I think they’ll make enough of a step there. Even if we can match them in the second and third sector, I think they’re still going to be quite strong.”