Daniel Ricciardo’s incredible Sprint qualifying lap marked a return in form for the honey badger. He commandeered his V-CARB challenger to P4 on the starting grid in the race. But his effort was deemed a fluke and the rest of the weekend has been predicted to be tough for the Perth-born driver.
ESPN’s Laurence Edmondson doesn’t think Ricciardo can repeat his heroics in the Grand Prix. His flying lap in the Sprint qualifying which helped him start (and finish) P4, was stellar. Edmondson, however, points out that Ricciardo was helped by others around him not substantially improving on their final efforts.
Contemplating whether Ricciardo’s luck would continue, he said (on the ESPN Unlapped Podcast)
“You can’t rely on other people getting it wrong all the time to get results. So, I think he might get shuffled back a bit.”
During Sprint qualifying in Miami, drivers experienced very little grip which affected their chances of improving their lap times. The medium tires they used in SQ2 had good grip on the surface but the softs at the end of the session gave a tough time to everyone, including Max Verstappen, who almost binned his car when navigating the tricky sector 2 chicane.
Ricciardo turned out to be the biggest winner on Friday and managed to hold on to P4 in the race, showing the paddock that he was back. This, unfortunately, was short-lived.
Daniel Ricciardo’s troubles resume
In the Sprint race, Ricciardo proved Edmondson’s hypotheses wrong. The 34-year-old even held off Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari to secure five important points for V-CARB. As a result, he headed into Grand Prix qualifying with immense confidence.
It all came crashing down for Ricciardo in the second session of Saturday. He got knocked out of Q1, finishing 18th, but will start the Miami GP on Sunday from P20 on the grid. This is because he received a three-place grid penalty in China two weeks ago that he will have to serve this weekend in Florida.
Ricciardo was handed the penalty after overtaking Hulkenberg during the safety car at the Chinese GP pic.twitter.com/Y98cXRwt9E
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) April 21, 2024
Ricciardo is now under added pressure once again. But, he heads into the race more confident than he has been all season. “It’s nice to still have that dog in me; it’s cool,” Ricciardo said after the Sprint (as quoted by Planet F1). “A lot of people like to talk s**t so it’s nice to couple of middle fingers up.”
Miami is a difficult track to overtake on. But with a good strategy and bold overtakes, Ricciardo has a good chance of finishing in the top ten.
