Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping to turn a corner on Sunday when a strong performance at the Portuguese Grand Prix partially erased his qualifying nightmare at Portimao.
Even so, the Australian is quickly running out of time to gain a foothold in his team-internal battle with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, which opens a considerable gap in the drivers’ standings.
In the meantime, Lewis Hamilton took his second win of the season – but he’s not the only thorn in Max Verstappen’s side in 2021.
These are the five things we learned from the Portuguese Grand Prix.
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RICCIARDOS WHEREES ARE NOT AS BAD AS THEY SEE …
Three races after his McLaren switch and the worries about Ricciardo are increasing rapidly.
The concerns are understandable.
Ricciardo, widely regarded as one of the most talented drivers in the field, is 21 points less than his junior team-mate Lando Norris. And that means nothing of Ricciardo’s shock failure in qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix, where he failed to make it from the first quarter.
But when you look through the disappointments of the first laps, there are positive signs that Ricciardo is moving forward.
To begin with, he was strong on race day in Portugal, where he jumped from P16 to the grid and finished in a respectable ninth place. Combined with his pace during Friday practice when he was faster than Norris and Ricciardo doesn’t seem to be lagging that far behind.
When Ricciardo spoke after the race on Sunday – still noticeably shaken by his qualification – he suggested that he would slowly gain a foothold at McLaren.
“As a driver, you know inside you when you are driving with confidence and whether it is somehow flowing,” said Ricciardo. “And Friday (practice) felt like this. Definitely more than before.
Ricciardo apologizes for the sloppy mistake
0:48
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“I think there were moments of speed today and moments when it wasn’t quite that far, but I think I took away a lot from this week’s race.”
McLaren F1 boss Andreas Seidl said after qualifying in Portugal that the problem for Ricciardo may be that low-grip tracks are exaggerating his teething problems at McLaren.
Ricciardo is still not at home in the car, and conditions with poor grip, such as those seen in Portimao and Imola when wet, may reveal drivers’ concerns, Seidl said.
“In the end, I think it’s the little things that are likely to be exaggerated in poor grip conditions, as we have here and how we also had them in Imola with the drying track,” said Seidl on motorsport.com.
“We saw in (Friday) training that (the Q1 outcome) is definitely not the gap that he currently has with Lando. He was just trying to put the lap together and it’s not easy to do the laps here with the traffic, the wind and all the low-grip conditions.
“We just have to stay calm, analyze, work through, and I’m sure it will come.”
… BUT THE excuses will expire soon
Even so, excuses for Ricciardo can only be made for so long.
The F1 circus is now heading to Spain, followed by the Monaco Grand Prix and Azerbaijan. both on low-grip roads that could further expose Ricciardo’s concerns in a McLaren.
He will therefore have to make great strides this weekend in Spain to feel more comfortable in the car and to give himself a better chance of driving in the more difficult track conditions that will follow.
If he has problems again, it stands to reason that he will remain well below his best until well into June and fall further behind Norris in the drivers’ standings.
Drivers shouldn’t be judged harshly during an acclimatization phase – but this phase cannot last a full season.
Ricciardo just has to start overtaking Norris soon or his shares will decline.
He faces the battle of his career as Norris’ confidence is already rising sharply.
“The trust is not only on the track, but also in the paddock and when working in the team at a high level,” Norris told Sky Sports.
Hamilton takes 97th victory at the Portuguese GP
3:18
TRACK LIMIT DEBACLE WILL NOT GO AWAY
Two races after they dominated the headlines in Bahrain and a day after doing the same thing in Saturday’s qualifying, the controversial issue of exceeding track restrictions was back on the spot on race day at Portimao.
And it was the same man at the center of the debate with Verstappen again at the wrong end.
In Bahrain, Verstappen believed he had taken the lead from Hamilton but was forced to surrender the position due to route restriction violations.
The decision probably would not have raised many eyebrows had it not been established that race winner Hamilton at Turn 4 exceeded the track restrictions 29 times in the race without punishment.
In qualifying for the Portuguese GP, Verstappen had canceled a pole lap after it was discovered that he had hiked outside the track limits again.
Then on Sunday, Verstappen thought he had set the fastest lap of the race – worth a potentially important championship point – until it was rubbed out for the same injury.
“Oh really? That’s good,” replied Verstappen.
“It’s a bit strange because they didn’t check the track restrictions at Turn 14, but whatever.”
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said after the race that something has to change to ensure that leaving the track is automatically at a disadvantage rather than a penalty later imposed by the race directors.
“Now we have lost the victory, the fastest lap and the pole position,” said Marko after the race at Sky Sports Germany. “All good things come in threes. I hope this is the end.
“Something has to change. Either you make a border with curbs or you make gravel or something. If you go out there is an automatic penalty
“Norris overtook (Sergio) Perez, ran all four wheels over and there were no consequences. So it’s inconsistent and it’s not a race if you juggle the rules like that. “
Miller overwhelmed by emotions after victory
2:24
HAMILTON SEND MAD MAX A RUDES AWAKE
Aside from the debate about route restrictions, Hamilton sent a strong message in the third act of his fight against Verstappen in 2021.
The Mercedes ace delivered an almost flawless drive in the third race of the season, which is billed as the closest championship fight of all time between Hamilton and Verstappen.
In Portugal, where Hamilton from Verstappen regained second place, they certainly weren’t close before they got past team-mate Valtteri Bottas and built a big lead.
Hamilton’s lead over the Dutchman was a whopping 29.148 seconds.
“What a phenomenal Lewis race,” said Nico Rosberg, Hamilton’s former team-mate.
“I’m a little amused because Max Verstappen is getting a better understanding of how good Lewis Hamilton is.
“He has to do everything perfectly to beat him in the championship and right now it’s two to one for Lewis.”
‘ANGRY’ ALSO SEND F1 REMINDER ON TIME
Fernando Alonso’s long-awaited return to Formula 1 didn’t cause much excitement on the first two laps as he retired in Bahrain and finished tenth at Imola.
But there were signs that old Alonso was still alive on Sunday when he said he went from 13th on the grid to eighth with “anger”.
The result was his best in F1 since the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix.
Former world champion Rosberg said on Sky Sports that he could “see the gladiator Alonso, whom we all remember from the beginning”.
Alonso agreed, saying the Portuguese Grand Prix was the first real chance to flex your muscles since returning to F1.
“I think in Bahrain I was more careful about everything to do the first Grand Prix,” said the apline driver. “Imola, I was totally … I felt so uncomfortable with the car in the wet.
“I think this was really the first race in which I really got the most out of the car. And I was annoyed after yesterday’s qualifying so that today the anger was probably on the right track too. “
Portugal was also a big step forward for Alpine, which struggled on the first two laps.
Neither Alonso nor his team-mate Esteban Ocon finished higher than ninth in the first two races, but in Portugal they finished eighth and seventh respectively.
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