Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris are two of the most playful personalities on the current grid and have often shown it during their two seasons together as teammates. It was again on full display ahead of the Dutch GP when the Aussie driver trolled his former McLaren teammate.
Saturday’s qualifying session at Zandvoort turned out really well for Norris as he put together a stellar final lap in Q3 to beat his championship rival, Max Verstappen by three and a half tenths. It’s the biggest gap that Norris has ever pulled on the Dutchman in qualifying and the Briton looks set to take his second win in F1.
However, in an Instagram video by the VCARB team, Ricciardo was seen approaching Norris’ car — as he arrived at the track — to troll him about his qualifying lap.
“I just wanted to say it was a really s**t lap yesterday, I expected more from you guys“, the Aussie said to the #4 driver. Surprisingly, Norris, who’s also well-known for his quips, couldn’t come up with a response and simply laughed at Ricciardo’s comments.
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While it was all in good spirits, Ricciardo is the one who actually delivered a poor qualifying lap on Saturday.
Could changing weather conditions rescue Ricciardo’s Dutch GP?
It was the fourth time in the 2024 season for Ricciardo when he found himself eliminated in the first part of qualifying. He ended up 16th on the grid but will start three places higher from 13th because of multiple penalties for drivers ahead of him.
Alex Albon was disqualified after stewards found the floor of his FW46 illegal and he will now race at the steward’s discretion. Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen has a pitlane start and Lewis Hamilton has a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez in qualifying.
As for Ricciardo, it was yet another disappointing result as his teammate Yuki Tsunoda again beat him to get a P11 start for the race. However, Ricciardo could still finish ahead of the Japanese driver in the race.
The weather in the Netherlands is always a big factor in the race, as was evident in last year’s unpredictable Grand Prix. And Ricciardo has the reputation of performing well in wet conditions, so the race might still come to him once the lights go out.
