Ricciardo - "I've got to pull my finger out" to land McLaren win

Daniel Ricciardo has joked he 'needs to pull his finger out' if he is to secure a victory with McLaren this Formula 1 season.

Ricciardo has endured a tough opening three races after his move over the winter from Renault with which he was on the podium twice last season, with the Australian already 21 points behind team-mate Lando Norris.

Listening to championship leader Lewis Hamilton explain how he attempts to raise the bar each weekend, Ricciardo quipped: "I'll take a couple of wins," to which Hamilton responded: "You've got a good car man."

With his trademark smile, Ricciardo then added: "I know, I've got to pull my finger out."

Although recovering to finish ninth in Sunday's Portuguese Grand Prix after failing to escape Q1, Ricciardo's result was again overshadowed by Norris who was 'best-of-the-rest' behind both Mercedes and Red Bulls.

For Ricciardo, the first back-to-back races of the year could not have come at a better time.

"I love back to backs," added Ricciardo. "I think if you have a good weekend you want to keep the momentum, and if you don't have a good weekend you have another chance for some redemption, so back to backs are always fun.

"Normally this track is not one you get excited for because in a normal year you've done a thousand laps of testing and then it's all too familiar.

"But I think familiar is probably good right now for me, with the car to get it to a circuit which I know very well, so I'm actually really looking forward to this one.

"It's the one with developments and all of that. It can set up the next few races for the teams that perform well here so I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone gets on."

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