The first lap of the Emilia Romagna GP that took place at Imola definitely did not start as some would hope. After a tangle in the first corner between Sainz and Ricciardo, the first one did not finish the race and the latter was only able to bring the car across the finish line on P18.

In the end, the race did not end well for Ferrari, after the DNF of Sainz and Leclerc pushing too hard and falling from P3 to P9 to eventually finish on P6. McLaren on the other hand bagged a score they didn’t expect, with Lando finishing on P3 and getting the first podium for McLaren this season. This definitely came as a surprise for the team after the struggles for all of the Mercedes-powered cars on the grid. 

It seems this season starts with struggles for the Australian in McLaren. In the first 4 races of the season he scored P14 in Bahrain, DNF in Saudi Arabia, P6 in Australia and P18 at Imola, compared to Norris who so far is 6th in the drivers standings, compared to Ricciardo’s P11. 

For somebody who really needs to bring better results, this weekend didn’t go good at all. 

Asked about the incident after the race, he replied: “Obviously not the way I wanted Sunday to go, of course, a painful one and obviously not the way I want to impact somebody else’s race. I just saw his onboard, I haven’t seen mine yet but…originally I thought I got hit but I think that was after the fact, like I slid up into Carlos and then once he was around I got pushed further, and the damage was done. 

“But from memory I think I got onto the curb, just to try by myself obviously a bit more space cause I know at some point its gonna bottle up but I think, yeah, once I got on the curb I just slid off it and then started to slide up into him so I think that’s what happened now after the fact. “Obviously intentions…were in a way good, to try and lets say leave some room but in those conditions I obviously didn’t have the grip that I was hopeful for and I slid up into him and obviously ruined his race as well and we had damage - it was just painful sixty laps. “

It seems McLaren is definitely working hard on upgrading the car, as the performance seemed way better than in those previous races. Norris was able to use Leclerc’s mistake to his advantage, but without the competitiveness of the car it wouldn’t be possible.

Asked after the race if it was frustrating to finish the race on P18 after McLaren has shown a better pace, Ricciardo replied: “It’s for sure frustrating, yeah I mean, competitive or not its never a way you want your Sunday to go, lap 1 incidents are the worst especially when you keep going to be honest. 

“It’s easier when you finish it on lap one, its like obviously then the rest of the race you’re trying to make something happen, but with damage as well it’s never really gonna come around. We’ll try to fix some things up, but for now obviously I’ll go and see Carlos and apologise and try to move on for Miami.”