McLaren's Andreas Seidl admits that the team were not expecting such a disappointing result from qualifying at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo caused one of the biggest surprises of the session when he failed to get out of Q3, leaving him in 16th place on the grid. Seidl believes that the conditions on track didn't help the Australian, who had previously shown better pace during the weekend. "To be honest finishing P7 and P16 was definitely not what we had in mind today, in the morning when we woke up and went to the track," Seidl told RacingNews365.com and other select media. "It's disappointing for Daniel [and] for us that he couldn't manage to get through Q2, Q3, because he definitely had good practice sessions here yesterday and also today in the morning, where he definitely felt more comfortable with the car. "But then with the tricky conditions here in qualy with the wind, the low grip and also with the traffic he simply didn't manage to get to repeat the performance he could show today in the morning. "Unfortunately that meant his qualifying was finished quite early, which is disappointing, but at the same time we simply need to put that behind us now." Seidl was also hoping for more from Lando Norris, who had a better day than his teammate but will start from seventh. Norris had previously shown strong pace in Q2, but Seidl believes the Briton's lap in Q3 was affected by Sebastian Vettel braking late to let Max Verstappen by. Despite the disappointment, the team principal is hopeful that McLaren can still perform well in the race. "We have to put this disappointment behind us now. We know we have a competitive car for tomorrow's race, I think we are in a good position to fight for good points again, and that's what we will focus on now." For Ricciardo, Seidl hopes that he can work his way back up into a points-paying position, whilst Norris' goal is to reach P5 or higher.
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