Ricciardo excited by strong Monza pace

Daniel Ricciardo was happy with his Friday in Monza after finishing the day an encouraging eighth fastest for RB.

The Australian was just over half a second away from the pace laid down by Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timesheets, having been 13th in the day’s earlier session.

His performance came despite not running the upgrades introduced by the team this weekend, Yuki Tsunoda receiving those courtesy of his relative position in the drivers’ championship standings.

RB has a number of new elements on Tsunoda’s car this weekend, some of which are circuit-specific, such as front and rear wings, but other performance elements too including a revised floor.

To have ended the day four-tenths clear of his team-mate despite not having the upgrades was a strong result.

“It was a good day,” Ricciardo beamed.

“Few little things which just kind of felt good.

“It’s a cool track, obviously I do really enjoy it – some circuits you just enjoy more than others.

“This one… in saying that, it was a little bit different as well; the asphalt, we saw a couple big crashes, and the grip is a little bit hard to find, it’s a little bit peaky.

“It’s kind of there, but then it can catch you off guard, so glad those boys are okay,” he added, referring to Kimi Antonelli and Kevin Magnussen, who both drew red flags with their respective offs.

“It’s one of those: it’s challenging but fun.

“Some of the chicanes, don’t love the new kerbs and all that, but always, it was still a good day – good to be back out on this track.”

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Ricciardo added that the foundation of the car is promising, leaving him enthused heading into the rest of the weekend.

“I’m pretty happy,” he said of where his car is.

“I don’t think we’ll do too much overnight – I mean, we’ll always do something, [this is] Formula 1, always got to change something!

“But we’re certainly not scratching out heads.

“We’re in a good place and I felt a good level of comfort in the car.

“So some fine tuning. I’m sure there is also time to find, as always, so not get complacent but we’re in a good place.”