Daniel Ricciardo says top six finish "around the corner" after Hungarian Grand Prix

Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo says that the team is gradually improving, with better results expected after back-to-back finishes in eighth place.

Daniel Ricciardo recorded his second eighth-place finish in a row at the Hungarian Grand Prix. (Image: Supplied)

Ricciardo qualified in eleventh for the Hungarian Grand Prix and was up two positions on the opening lap, with the Renault DP World F1 team keeping both the Australian and his French co-driver Esteban Ocon on track before stopping for Medium tyres on Lap 4.

The Australian held firm on track, jumping a number of cars ahead of him, before finally pitting again on Lap 43 for a new set of mediums.

The West Australian eventually finished the race in eighth position - his second in two weeks..

“It was quite a busy race and, overall, I’m happy with how it went,” he said.

“I gave everything I could and I felt we got the most from it today."

“Our start was good and everyone around us went for slicks quite early on. We showed good pace on the Medium and almost caught the top six at the end. Eighth was all we could achieve in the end, though.

“We’ve had eighth in every race so far. It’s not bad, but I do feel we have the speed for more from the first three races. We’re not far from top six finishes, it’s coming, and we know bigger points are around the corner.”

Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul said “it’s the third race in a row where we have finished in eighth place.”

“Given the competitiveness of the field, it is where our car probably is right now.”

“It was good to get the two cars at the end as a lot has been done to overcome the reliability issues from the first two races. This weekend has revolved around tyre choices and looking at the weather radar. Our strong competitiveness on Friday encouraged us to try and qualify on the Medium, but in hindsight doing so we probably made the qualifying session too difficult and not only it did not pay in terms of starting position but it also turned out to be unnecessary as we all started on Intermediates for the race.

“We didn’t have great first laps, but we managed to recover after the first stop, which was probably rightly timed on a drying track. From that point onwards it was about managing a dry race with two sets of Mediums for Daniel and Medium to Hard for Esteban.

“Both cars showed once again very decent pace in free air, but the pace delta was not enough to progress further in the order towards the end of the race. Esteban is clearly disappointed with his weekend and we will use the time we have before the next triple headers to look into what we can do to rebound.”