Final season at Renault ranks up there with my best - Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo has said his final season with Renault ranks among the best of his Formula 1 career.

Ricciardo, who will race with McLaren this year, finished fifth in the drivers' championship with two podiums to his name.

Racing against his new employers in an ultra-competitive midfield, the Australian's tally of 119 points saw him outscore both outgoing McLaren driver Carlos Sainz by 14 points and his new team-mate, Lando Norris, by 22.

Asked to rate his season against previous efforts, Ricciardo said: “I definitely feel it has been there or thereabouts. I probably haven’t really reflected too much on the year yet and really got into the key moments or the ones where I was like ‘that was as good as I was driving’ whenever that was.

“I think my Q2s this year were always really good in terms of... I don’t think we were always getting into Q3 easily, but when it counted I would find the time in Q2 and really set myself up well like in Russia."

At Sochi, Ricciardo finished fifth in both qualifying and the race, his best result at the Sochi Autodrom. Despite his two podiums at the Nurburgring and Imola, it was this turn of pace in Russia he singled out as his highlight of 2020.

“My Q2 in Russia, that was a good one," he explained. "Actually, Russia was probably the standout for me now that I think about it.

"It was just one of those tracks where I don’t think it always gelled for me but this year I really took a turn there and I think I was maybe sitting P1 in Q2 so I was like ‘yeah this is cool’.”

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