Daniel Ricciardo silences critics of his performances thus far in 2024 with a P5 finish in Qualifying at the Canada Grand Prix.
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After 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve questioned why Daniel Ricciardo was “still in F1.” the Australian fought back. He responded with performance during races and in his statements afterwards.
Ricciardo was confident throughout qualifying, joining recently re-signed Yuki Tsunoda in Q3, before finishing P5 to Tsunoda’s P8. In a close qualifying session, Ricciardo was 0.178s behind the shared 1.12.000 lap times of George Russell and Max Verstappen.
Ricciardo Silences Critics
He commented after hearing Villeneuve’s remarks, “I don’t listen or read but… yeah, there’s definitely some people out there who… Yeah, whatever. I won’t give them the time of day, but yeah, top five, been quick all weekend, we’re less than two-tenths from pole so… eat s***!”
RB has had a good weekend so far, which might increase Ricciardo’s seat chances for next year. While he is already in a good chance for an extension because of his marketability, proving his worth on track is important. “I’m very pleased, I’m pretty jacked certainly,” he said. “It’s been a really good weekend, it’s been one of those weekends where I certainly haven’t really had any doubts. It’s one of those ones where everything’s been feeling good.“
It appears that things are falling into place for RB this weekend. This has increased the Australian’s confidence: “I know when I feel like this, I can do things like this, so it’s just trying to get myself in this place more often and obviously that’s what I’ve been missing this year. But when I get it right, it goes pretty right.”
“I feel like since we put the car on the track, we’ve both been pretty comfortable,” added Ricciardo. “I think Yuki was struggling a bit more through the weekend but he got it together in quali, but I’ve been honestly really happy all weekend with the car, so that helps.”
Ten years ago he won the first of his eight Formula 1 victories here at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He did not miss the chance to reminisce over this fact: “But it’s just a track I enjoy, and 10 years ago to the day that changed my life, my first win here, so there’s always just that feel-good factor coming back.”
Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
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