Daniel Ricciardo produced another strong Sunday drive as he finished 9th in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
In the opening stint, he ran in P12 as Gasly and Magnussen jumped him on lap 1. However, RB got aggressive with an early stop, allowing him to jump the Alpines who went longer than the Aussie and the Haas cars.
That did not work for the Enstone-based team, though. The 35-year-old managed his tyres perfectly after doing 35 laps on his last hard set, putting himself inside Magnussen’s DRS at the end to fend off Pierre Gasly.
The 8-time Grand Prix credited the team for their strategy to help him get 2 points.
“I don’t remember all the race. I need to probably watch it again to rate how happy I am, but I’m definitely more happy than sad.
“Obviously Haas outscored us, but we weren’t quick enough.“I think also the Alpine was quicker, so to hang on [was good].
“I think the team helped. We had the two hard tyres, we could pit a little bit earlier and capitalise on track position, so they pitted me at the right time and then I just had to watch the mirrors and try not to fuck up, basically. [I] did a clean race.”
Throughout the season, Ricciardo’s race pace has generally been very strong. Following qualifying improvements recently, he’s been able to unleash that potential in Montreal, Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring.
He’s beaten teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the last three Grands Prix, outscoring him 6-0 in the process.
The driver from Perth admits he’s recent drivers have left him feeling proud, even if he is still looking for more.
“I would say it’s been three weekends on the bounce now.
“Obviously Barcelona it’s hard to celebrate a 15th, but I was actually really happy with my race. I say really happy, happy with getting the most out of it.
“I feel like that’s three weeks in a row now where I’ve got most out of it.
“Still searching for a bit more perfection. But yeah, three on the bounce.
“At least I can I say I swiped out of the paddock three weekends in a row now on a Sunday, feeling proud.
“Just got to keep that up.”
RB’s sizeable update package caused them problems in Barcelona. Both drivers got knocked out in Q1, and Ricciardo was the lead driver in P15 on the Sunday.
Progress was made this weekend according to the Australian. More work is ahead to fully understand it, nonetheless.
“There is some elements we have answers and we feel okay with, others less so. There’s still a bit of understanding to take place.
“Look, in 7 days I think we did a good job to come here with a better package and a better understanding of it.
“I think overall pace, Haas and Alpine were quicker than us this weekend. We need to find another little bit for Silverstone, or we could be again on the back foot.
“We’ll try to do that and see where it takes us.”
In practice, Ricciardo could only manage P16 as he struggled for pace. An aero package change before Sprint qualifying helped a lot, however.
Although it did not show in the Sprint part of the weekend particularly, things got a lot better from Grand Prix qualifying onwards. He was P11 on the grid, before getting that P9 on Sunday.
“I definitely had a few more changes before Sprint qualifying. That was hard.
“I mean we had to do it after what we learned from FP1, but it was hard because in Sprint qualifying you got one medium.
“It’s not like you can get two sets of tyres and two chances.
“[We had a little] bit more understanding yesterday and qualifying went a lot better. Friday was a bit difficult, but then the weekend got better and better.
“Happy with the way we were able to recover and learn quickly.”
Ricciardo’s two points collected in Austria leaves him P13 in the standings ahead of the British Grand Prix this weekend.
