Ricciardo told rival for Red Bull seat has the 'upper hand'

Karun Chandhok has given a brutal assessment on Daniel Ricciardo’s performance to his Visa Cash App RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

Heading into his home grand prix in Melbourne, Ricciardo was lagging behind his much younger team-mate, finishing Friday’s practice sessions over six tenths down in FP1 and three tenths down in FP2.

READ MORE: Red Bull star hints at title fight after claiming rivals were a 'step ahead'

Tsunoda has outperformed the Aussie in qualifying at the two opening races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, registering eleventh and ninth respectively while Ricciardo has only managed 14th on both occasions.

Team orders meant the Japanese driver finished behind Ricciardo in Bahrain, when the team instructed Tsunoda to let his team-mate past on the soft tyre in order to catch Kevin Magnussen, but ultimately failed to do so.

Chandhok: Tsunoda has the upper hand over Ricciardo

In Jeddah, a five second time penalty saw Tsunoda finish down in 15th, but he was still able to beat his team-mate who came home 16th after a spin and a long pit stop.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 after Friday practice in Australia, Chandhok claimed that Tsunoda has ‘the upper hand’ over Ricciardo and that his difficult start to the season may cost him in his chances of potentially replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull next season.

“They’ve brought Daniel in as this experienced hand who was going to lead the team,” he said.

READ MORE: Verstappen explains BIZARRE cause of his Australian Grand Prix DNF

“But in the time they’ve had as a head-to-head, Yuki’s actually had the upper hand.

“You have to say this year he feels like he’s upped his game. The gap between them in Saudi was half a second [and it was] three-tenths today, again. And because of the stuff going on with Red Bull, this is a potential battle for a seat in the big team for, especially, for Daniel.

“We always thought it was going to be him vs Perez for that seat. But, so far, you have to say he’s not quite been doing enough to beat Yuki.”

READ MORE: Red Bull boss lifts the lid on how 'frustrated' Verstappen responded to DNF

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