Formula 1 | Ricciardo between ‘frustration’ and encouragement in Belgium
Daniel Ricciardo failed to advance to Q3 at the Belgian Grand Prix, but the McLaren F1 driver was not far behind his team-mate in Q2, and he will start on the seventh game from race penalties. Something to reassure him despite a little frustration about his performance.
“I knew crossing the line that it was not my best lap” says Australia. “But the lap was okay, we lost a bit of rhythm during the lap, there were a few little things out of control and it’s frustrating. You’re like ‘I did what I could’, but it cost me Q3.”
“I’ve also moved up a few places so I’ll have everything fall into place tomorrow. We had problems this morning and had to change the rear wing specification, and I don’t have the one I prefer. . Maybe it will work perfectly, I don’t know, it’s hard to know what will happen tomorrow.”
Ricciardo still hopes to have a positive race: “We were pretty competitive this weekend so I don’t think it will be a disaster. I’m not predicting what will happen, but it’s hard to say if we’ll fight with Alpine. Albon is fast with the Williams and it’s hard to know, but I’m looking forward to racing for sure.”
“Everything went according to plan” for Norris
Lando Norris, for his part, will start from the ninth row of the grille because of a vulnerability, despite a promotion to Q3 thanks to his lap times: “On my side, I just had to qualify in front of the other guys who had a faculty, I did my best.”
“The Alpines were fast and I couldn’t beat Ocon, he had two sets of new tires and I didn’t. Other than that everything went according to plan. I feel like the car is pretty good , it won’t be easy to get back in the points, even on a circuit like this.”
Norris hopes for a race with opportunities, without considering better than a top 10: “Maybe there will be Safety Cars and things like that which can help us. The Mercedes are close and will certainly be faster in the race, as they always are.
“Then you have the Aston Martins, the AlphaTauris and the Alpines which are very fast, some faster than us. It will be difficult to do very well tomorrow, but getting back in the points will be our target.”