Daniel Ricciardo hails ‘best weekend yet’ with McLaren
Monday, 10 May 2021
The Aussie had a breakthrough result.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo says he enjoyed his best weekend yet for McLaren at the Spanish GP.
After qualifying in P7, he managed a sensational start and gained an impressive two places on the opening lap.
Although he eventually lost a position to Sergio Perez on lap 46, he came home to finish in sixth place after fending off Carlos Sainz towards the end of the race.
Most importantly of all, Ricciardo beat his teammate Lando Norris in a race for the first time this season, who managed an eighth-place finish.
Ricciardo appears to be improving in the McLaren every race weekend and this result will inject plenty of confidence into the Australian.
The race was won by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) and Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) completing the podium.
We’re proud of you, @danielricciardo! 👏 #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/EOWseupDlk
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) May 9, 2021
“It has been my strongest race so far this year,” Ricciardo said after the race.
“I think Portugal was good but I started too far back.
"Today was better because we made a good start and got ahead of some faster cars, and then I had to defend the whole race.
“There was a lot of pressure and still some mistakes, but it was a much cleaner race.
"Sergio was much faster but to hold them off as long as I did I was quite happy with that.
"And in the end holding off Carlos was important.”
Ricciardo returns for one of his favourite races on the F1® calendar with the Monaco GP on 20-23 May.
