Daniel Ricciardo has his eyes on the points in today’s Sprint race, following a P4 finish in yesterday’s 2024 Miami Sprint Quali.
The RB driver has had his fair share of troubles recently, with rumours swirling about his future with the Red Bull sister team and within the sport after a tough few races at the start of the 2024 season.
The Australian driver was forced to retire with damage just one race ago in China, when Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll collided with the RB at a Safety Car restart. However, a good run in yesterday’s 2024 Miami Sprint Quali saw him end the session in P4. He’ll start on the second row today.
Ricciardo posted an impressive time of 1:28.044, 0.168 off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in P3, and four tenths off of polesitter Max Verstappen. Ricciardo’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished the 2024 Miami Sprint Quali in P15. Ricciardo said he wasn’t expecting a P4 finish, although he knew he had a good shot at starting towards the front of the grid;
“Did I expect to do a second row start? Probably not that good you know, I felt really good in Q2 and I knew that lap would be good enough for Q3 so I think at that point we were P5, and in my head I was like P5 would be really nice for Q3. Then we got P4 and it was yeah it was it was wild.
“The laps were good but it’s hard to be really clean around here. It’s just a tricky track and you know that little middle sector jumping across the chicane? It’s hard to get it right, so both laps I hit the wall on the exit of 16. The first one was a hit – it actually felt pretty big for that, but yeah also was definitely pushing. I don’t know if that helped my lap time but yeah it was it was really good.”
Looking forward to today’s racing, Ricciardo hopes to get some points and climb the Driver Standings. He remains one of seven drivers yet to score a point in the 2024 season. If he can hold his own in the Sprint today to finish within the top eight, he will leapfrog his way up.
Now, Ricciardo is looking forward to starting towards the front and lessening the probability of a mid-pack clash at the start;
“It’s just so nice starting towards the front you know, even just kind of being out of that mid pack… kind of normally a bit of chaos, so hopefully you know, you kind of go with the leaders at the beginning. It’s a short race so hopefully get kind of through enough of it with them in the first few laps and end up with a good bag of points.
“I’m very proud of what I did today, but also the team has been bringing updates the last few races obviously I had the chassis change last race in China and you know we had a new floor here so things are yeah definitely look like it’s turning around.”
Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Poo
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