Daniel Ricciardo has described Mercedes’ engine advantage that helped Lewis Hamilton to pole position in Australian Grand Prix qualifying as “a punch in the stomach” to its Formula 1 rivals.&nღbsp;

Hamilton held provisional pole position by a slender margin over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull followin📖g the opening Q3 runs, but the Briton turned in the fastest-ever lap around Albert Park to seal pole by a whopping six tenths, having found an improvement of nearly a seconꦐd on his final effort. 

The reigning world champion refuted suggestions 💖his Q3 ga𓆉in was the result of a switch to a faster engine mode, with Ricciardo labelling Hamilton’s significant advantage as “scary”. 

“That sucks,” Ricciardo said. “It is frustrating because everyone else wa🐠nts to see them get challenged a bit more. Tha🍨t was a little bit of a punch in the stomach to everyone. 

“I know they are loving it, they are in a good position. But everyone else is hating it. So hopefully we can catch up. Hopefully in the race they don’t have as much as that because that is a bit scary that mode they g🔯ot.”

The Australian qualified fifth in Melbourne behind Red Bull teammate Verstappen, but is set to drop five places on Sunday’s grid after being hit with a five-place grid penalty for driving tooಌ fast under red flag cꦓonditions during FP2 on Friday.

Ricciardo said he was shocked by the gap to Mercede💟s, which he added has left him feeling d🐼isheartened.

“I didౠn’t expect that much, particularly from Q2 to Q3. I knew that they would have a bit more, and I expected them to be more than two tenths quicker than us, but to go that much quicker at the end, it was like throwing a pie in everyone’s face. 

“I think Lewis is very good but I don’t think he is too good,” he 𓆉added. “But the car and their package is too good. It is not to discredit Lewis, not at all, but I think even him at 90 percent with that package that they had today, he still would have got pole. 

“So that is where I feel like any of us top guys c🐽ould have made that happen. But the buffer that they had then was a little bit🧔 disheartening, so we have to try and figure it out.”