Ricciardo celebrates points despite bittersweet Canadian GP

Despite getting caught up in penalty drama during the wet and wild Canadian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo said it was a “relief” to finish in P8, scoring four very needed points to end “a fairly good weekend” in Montreal.

Lining up from P5, it was not the dream getaway from Ricciardo who instantly lost out to Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

The positional loss was compounded by the Australian’s later-received five-second penalty for a false start, one he served in the pits during the first Safety Car.

“I would that [it’s bittersweet], you know, a little bit of a relief at the end to get back into the points. 

“For a while, we dropped out [of the points] and yeah, I mean, a few reasons,” Ricciardo said.

“It was weird because I got told I had a five-second penalty for a jump start, but I know I didn’t jump the lights so I was a bit confused, so I obviously questioned it.

“But then I remembered, I feel like when I was finding the revs for the start I felt like maybe the car… ‘cause I’m watching the lights, I felt maybe the car was moving.

“Pierre [Hameiln, Ricciardo’s Race Engineer] said obviously we had a bit of an issue, so perhaps a clutch or something. 

“That obviously was a little bit of a back step and then when we pitted for, I think, an inter, we lost a few positions for the cars that stayed out and then we weren’t really able to get much more out of that new inter.

“The race was kind of getting away from us, and then as it dried towards the end we were able to pick our way through a few cars.

“Happy to obviously finish with four points and get that.”

8th placed Daniel Ricciardo celebrates with his team after the Canadian Grand Prix. Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images.

Ricciardo emerged from the pits, narrowly remaining in within the top ten despite his 9.3-second pitstop. 

At the midway point of the 70-lap nail-biter, Alex Albon was Ricciardo’s closest rival, and it was in his fight with the Williams driver that he ultimately dropped out of the points.

Ricciardo felt as if he lost out in the process of coming into the pits for a second time, making the all-important switch to the dry tyre.

The #3 exited the pitlane narrowly ahead of Carlos Sainz, but his place leading over the struggling Ferrari was short-lived.

Sainz’s time ahead of the RB driver was momentary, however, with the Spaniard spinning out of the race and taking Albon with him.

With both drivers involved being forced to retire, and Albon’s stricken Williams prompting a safety car, Ricciardo inherited two positions to move into the top ten.

His inheritance of positions wasn’t over, with Yuki Tsunoda also spinning in the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Running in P9, the Australian picked off Esteban Ocon for eighth place, leading over the disgruntled Alpine duo across the line as he claimed a hard-fought P8 in Canada. 

“It was never going to be perfect, I mean these conditions are so hard to get it right for everyone.

“We’ll obviously keep trying to clean it up but I think in general, for a race like that, we walked away with some points so all in all, a fairly good weekend from start to finish and I won’t complain… it was definitely a good one.

“These weekends are sometimes the hardest, especially when maybe things aren’t going too well or you’re lacking momentum, you get so many… you know we had all conditions this weekend so that was nice to, as you say, start to finish, keep it on track, keep it steady, keep it smooth.

“We needed it, of course, I needed it.

“So yeah, I won’t say anything else to [the critics], we’ll keep it quiet but, yeah, happy!”

The Formula 1 grid will have a weekend off before heading back to Europe for the first triple-header of the season, kicking off with the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from June 21-23.

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