Daniel Ricciardo reveals plan to “watch everyone suffer"

Ricciardo, Mclaren, Hungary — Photo: © LAT Images

Hungarian Grand Prix

Ricciardo reveals plan to “watch everyone suffer"

Ricciardo has a free tyre choice after qualifying 11th

Sam Hall

Sunday 1 August 2021 12:30

Daniel Ricciardo has joked of his intention to "watch everyone suffer on soft tyres" after qualifying 11th and securing a free selection of compound for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver's qualifying struggles returned on Saturday as he again failed to reach Q3 but Ricciardo hoped he would later reflect on his disappointment as a "good result".

Overtaking is notoriously difficult in Hungary but of his plan to progress through the order, the Australian quipped: “I will watch everyone suffer on soft tyres and go from there.

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"I’ll start on the soft as well but they’ll just suffer more than me! “I think we’ll be in a better position on Sunday. In qualifying, the goal was definitely Q3 but maybe by Sunday afternoon we’ll be maybe saying this was a good result.”

Ricciardo chicane error not to blame for Q2 exit

Ricciardo suffered from a snap of oversteer at the turn six-seven chicane on his final run of Q2 and missed out on a spot in the top 10 by just 0.077secs.

Refusing to blame the error entirely, he explained: "There was a little bit there but I think it was just a little snap on exit. It didn’t really delay much throttle.

"For sure, it scrubbed off a bit of speed so there was certainly a bit there.

“But other than that, the lap itself was decent in terms of no big errors and there weren’t chunks of lap time anywhere. It was probably a little bit here and there.

“So I think when you are close, I think the chicane didn’t help but it’s tight this year.

“Obviously, I’m not on the right end of it often enough.”