F1 | Canadian GP | Starting in front of faster cars could make it an “interesting race” for Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo looking forward to the race, after taking P9 in a wet to - almost - dry qualifying session.
Formula 1 is back in Montreal for the first time since 2019 on a track that holds good memories for Daniel Ricciardo who won his first race here back in 2014.
The Australian will shootout from P9 at lights out for the Canadian Grand Prix, behind George Russell’s Mercedes.
A tricky qualifying session that started on full wets under the rain and saw the track progressively dry out through Q2 and Q3.
And it’s in the switch to inters that Ricciardo feels things could have been better, as that is when he found himself struggling with the rear tyres of his MCL36.
"Another Q3 is nice. When you get into Q3 and the top ten, to leave with ninth, part of me thinks it could have been better, but as the track dried we lost just a little bit of our advantage,” he explained at the end of the session.
“Weirdly, I felt a bit more competitive in the wetter conditions, and then as it dried, trying to use the rears, we struggled maybe a little bit more to lean on the tyre.”
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“With that being said, I think it’s been a positive weekend so far. It’s definitely been a step in the right direction again. We really hit the ground running in both dry and wet conditions and we’ve been on the pace, showing some good signs.”
As for the race he is up for a good challenge, having quicker cars starting behind his McLaren: Sergio Perez’s Red Bull in P13 and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, that will be hunting down positions to climb up from the back of the grid after a hefty penalty following a PU change.
"I’m looking forward to tomorrow, when hopefully we can get a bit deeper into the points and end the weekend on a high,” said Ricciardo.
“There’s maybe a few cars out of position as well, and you never know how that could sway the race. There’s potentially slower cars in front, but to be honest, there’s also a couple of quicker ones behind with Charles [Leclerc] and Sergio [Perez], so it could be an interesting race. I’m looking forward to it."
