Daniel Ricciardo revels watching McLaren rivals "suffer and sweat"

Ricciardo, Mclaren — Photo: © LAT Images

French Grand Prix

Ricciardo revels watching McLaren rivals "suffer and sweat"

McLaren secured a fifth and sixth place finish at Paul Ricard

Ewan Gale

Sunday 20 June 2021 19:45

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Daniel Ricciardo revelled in watching McLaren's rivals "suffer and sweat" with tyre degradation after a "crazy" French Grand Prix.

McLaren took control of the race for third in F1's constructors' title with as Lando Norris was fifth and Ricciardo sixth while Ferrari finished pointless after struggling with high tyre wear despite starting ahead of the duo.

With the race dictated by tyre strategy, Ricciardo was able to make his way past Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri courtesy of an early undercut.

"It was a good call from the team," Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1.

"They called me pretty late and basically said, long story short, if [Pierre] Gasly pits stay out and if he doesn't, pit so basically do the opposite to him.

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"He stayed out so we went in and got a good undercut. Just a cool race. The first stint, everyone struggled a bit, we suffered a little less so it was nice to see them suffer and sweat a little.

"It was a crazy, crazy situation. What is really encouraging after a race like this is that on Saturday we are not really there yet but this shows we shouldn't get discouraged.

"It still allows a lot of hope for a Sunday and days like today prove there are still some great opportunities."

Ricciardo relieved to rediscover attacking instinct

Despite a difficult beginning to life at McLaren, Ricciardo looked to be back on form in the south of France with a performance highlighted by trademark late-braking overtakes.

"It was just a fun race," added Ricciardo. "Being able to do that and, typically, it is not always a track that allows us to fight that hard so I was really pleasantly surprised that it was a good race all the way through the field.

"The first stint was really strong. With the hard, I was a little less competitive so there are still some things to improve on.

"But for the most part, definitely a productive weekend and I enjoyed just being able to attack and use the brakes a little better and get back to some old skills."