Ricciardo experiences his 'best weekend of the year' in China

Daniel Ricciardo hails chassis changes for his top performance this year in Shanghai.

Daniel Ricciardo recorded his best qualification of the year in Shanghai, securing 12th place. The RB F1 driver also enjoyed the Sprint earlier in the day and hopes it signifies progress made due to the chassis change.

“So far, it’s a more positive weekend for us and my best of the year,” Ricciardo beams. “We changed the chassis this weekend and I feel better in the car and have more confidence in it, so that’s encouraging, but it’s just one circuit.”

“I’ve always enjoyed Shanghai and I have a good history here, so I think we need to continue to prove our performance in the upcoming races. We had a lot of fun this morning, there are positive takeaways and lessons to be learned for tomorrow’s race.”

“Mid-race, the DRS train was a bit challenging, but once I passed Valtteri (Bottas), I was able to catch up to Kevin (Magnussen) quite quickly. We had a good battle in the final laps, unfortunately not for points, but we knew it would be tough to score points in the Sprint.”

“I felt better today, and the sprint was definitely more aggressive than the previous ones. The track conditions have changed a lot from yesterday. The rain made the track slipperier and the wind has changed a lot, which posed numerous challenges before qualifying.”

“I’m happy with my lap in qualifying and I think there wasn’t much else to extract. There were a few of our direct rivals in Q3 and they found a bit more pace, but I think we have a bit more pace than some cars around us.”

“At the same time, I think others will challenge us from behind. I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow, it will probably be a one-stop race, but it’s a unique circuit with front-limited issues, so potentially two stops.”

Tsunoda hasn’t solved all his problems

Yuki Tsunoda ends a streak of three Q3 appearances and fails in Q1 in 19th place. The Japanese driver admits he’s disappointed: “It has been tough. This morning, during the Sprint, I tried to find my way, to work and learn, but I was still struggling.”

“We looked at the data and felt we had made a step forward for qualifying. The feelings are mixed. During the Sprint qualifying, I felt I wasn’t able to put everything together on my side, but during today’s qualifying, I was quite happy with my lap.”

“I’ve been fighting with rear grip all weekend and looking at the steering trace compared to other cars, I struggle a lot with my car, but I’ve worked hard with the engineers to improve it and find a solution, and they’ve helped me a lot.”

“Before qualifying, we felt good and confident that we had found a solution for our package. I am quite happy with my lap, but the time doesn’t reflect that feeling, and it feels like we’re stuck.”

“Ending up in 19th place again is frustrating and unfortunate, but we will analyze, try to understand, and find the solution. Tomorrow, we will have to change something to find more pace and hopefully we can get closer to the points.”