After showing signs of promise last weekend, Daniel Ricciardo came back to earth with a race to forget at the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday morning (AEST).
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen survived a pit stop blunder and a thrilling battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to claim his fifth win in six races and extend his lead in the drivers’ championship to 46 points.
Ricciardo started ninth on the grid and settled into the middle of the field after he had a mini-win in qualifying, making Q3 and finishing ahead of his McLaren teammate Norris for the second time this season.
Neither McLaren driver picked up a championship point.
The Australian finished 11th and can take some solace from being ahead of Norris, who came 15th after McLaren brought out the wrong tyres for his pit stop in a botched attempt at a double stacking strategy.
It was another underwhelming race for Ricciardo and Sky Sports host Simon Lazenby said “he was never really in it”.
Pit lane commentator Ted Kravitz described the pit lane blunder when Ricciardo fell from ninth to 12th as “a disastrously slow stop”.
“McLaren had an unusually bad day for them,” he said.
“No points scored. Norris is 15th and down on power because he had to swap out for an old engine.
“That was not a good day for McLaren.”
Ricciardo said after the race: “It was not a well polished race.”
The F1 season resumes at the British Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
Canadian Grand Prix results
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4. George Russell (Mercedes)
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
6. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
7. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
8. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
9. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
