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Stewards sanctioned Ricciardo for driving too
fast under red flag conditions during FP2 and the Western
Australian was still seething after finishing fifth fastest
during the final phase of qualifying a day later.
Stewards said in a statement they had imposed a "lesser penalty
than usual" because Ricciardo had driven with "due care" and
there was "no danger".
Ricciardo, who was tipped as a contender for the win at Albert
Park, felt wronged.
"I thought it was unjust," the 28-year-old said.
"A penalty sure, there's reprimands, there's fines, there's
other things but to kind of shoot me in the ankle before the
season's started... I thought they could have done better.
"But anyway, from fifth we go to eighth."
Champion Lewis Hamilton grabbed a record seventh pole at the
Australian race for Mercedes, surpassing Ayrton Senna's six and
leaving a gap of more than six-tenths of a second to Ferrari's
second-placed Kimi Raikkonen.
Red Bull arrived in Melbourne with great expectations but
finished behind both the Ferraris, with Max Verstappen to start
fourth alongside four-times champion Sebastian Vettel.
"I think the qualifying first parts were OK but at the end we
just missed a few tenths," Ricciardo said. "It looked like it
was all in the first sector (of the circuit).
"I don't really know with the balance what I could have done
much more there, so I'll see now. Yes, for sure it was
frustrating a little bit."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier said he had
never seen Ricciardo so enraged.
"I don't think (the stewards) wanted to give him the penalty but
they had to," the Briton said. "You could see from the wording
of the statement that they tried to water it down as best they
could.
"It's just so unfortunate for Daniel, home driver, home race.
I've never seen him as angry as he was last night. It's still
eating him up and he's still pretty revved up about it."
Ricciardo, who has won five races for Red Bull, has had a bitter
record at Albert Park, where no Australian racer has won.
In 2014, he finished second behind Mercedes winner Nico Rosberg
but was later disqualified due to a technical infringement that
was no fault of his own.
Last year, he crashed during qualifying, had to start the race
from pit-lane due to a reliability problem and ended up retiring
midway.
(Editing by John O'Brien)
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