Daniel Ricciardo "happy with eighth place" to start British Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo says he is happy with his eighth-place qualifying for the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix, ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in ninth.
Daniel Ricciardo on track for qualifying at the F1 Pirelli British Grand Prix. (Image: Supplied)
The Australian was slightly down on his teammate on his first run in Q3, before pulling out an improved lap to secure eighth on the grid.
“I’m happy with eighth place today, especially in quite tricky conditions,” he said.
“It was a clean lap, no mistakes, nothing too spectacular, but good enough for eighth and just short of seventh.”
The Perth native said he was looking forward to the midfield battle in the Grand Prix, but it also presented its challenges.
“It was pretty close there with a few of us within half a second of each other.”
“We’ve been in and around the top 10 all weekend, so we can be pleased with today’s performance. Tomorrow’s race will be interesting, especially in the battle for sixth or maybe fifth position. We’re starting on the Softs, as are most people around us, so we’ll see what we can do.”
“Taking home good points is the target.”
Daniel Ricciardo completes his lap during qualifying at the F1 Pirelli British Grand Prix. (Image: Supplied)
Teammate Esteban Ocon was also positive about his result.
“It’s been a good qualifying overall. It was a very positive session, especially Q1 and Q2, where we were quite comfortable. We lost it a little bit in Q3, so we’ll review what happened there.”
“I’m happy with the progress from Hungary and we need to keep going. We seem to have better pace on Sundays, and qualifying has been the area where we’ve needed to find the most improvements. I think tomorrow will be good, we’re in amongst the top 10 and we have a good opportunity for some decent points.”
Alan Permane, Sporting Director for the Renault DP World F1 team, remarked on the unique challenges posed by the British circuit.
“It was a tricky session with the conditions as the wind was picking up between Q1 and Q2, which made it difficult and often unpredictable, especially in the very high-speed corners here. We’re very happy to have both cars in Q3, of course, and we have promising starting positions on the grid.”
“Now, we look forward to a trouble-free race tomorrow. Our race pace, as ever, looks very strong from our Friday simulations, so we will look to capitalise on our start positions and make sure we score decent points in the race.”
