Daniel Ricciardo expressed his delight with his performance in yesterday's French Grand Prix as the Australian secured his third top-six finish of the 2021 season.

After a difficult start to the season, which saw Ricciardo struggle with McLaren's MCL35M, the Australian finally found form in Paul Ricard after carving his way through the order to finish sixth place from 10th on the grid. 

Ricciardo also expressed his enjoyment of battling with two time World Champion Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly near the end of the race when speaking to Formula 1.com.

“It was fun – battled, fought, talked some smack, elbows out and then had to hold off a fast-charging (Pierre) Gasly and (Fernando) Alonso at the end."

"I’m happy just to have had a fun Sunday with some battles and all of it, so came home with some good points for the team – they’re obviously stoked, fifth and sixth – so good day for us considering where we started, and I guess (with) where some of our rivals ended it was a big one.”

After a disappointing weekend in Monte Carlo, which saw the Australian finish 12th and a lap down on race winner Max Verstappen, Ricciardo took a step back and tried to remain resilient as he begins to feel more comfortable with the McLaren.

“Yeah, after the frustrations of Monaco, I kind of took a step back and was like ‘big picture’ – I know that it’s going to come and I know that if I keep persisting… I think like staying resilient through it all, days like this will come and I will be able to battle, pull off some moves and all that sort of stuff."

“So this car will feel like home and I think today it started to feel a little more like home – and the next two (races) coming up are hopefully fun ones as well, with some good moves, battles – and it’s nice seeing the others suffer a little bit more than us as well.”