After his Baku blunder, Daniel Ricciardo will be aiming for points with Renault in Barcelona, with the help of a clean race and a few of his signature overtaking moves.
Ricciardo's disappointing weekend in Baku - marked by a clumsy reverse maneuver in a runoff area that put himself and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat out of the race - is in the rear view mirror.
But the three-place grid penalty handed to the Aussie as a result of his mishap won't make his lige easy at the Circuit de Catalunya.
"I feel bad for the team about what happened in Baku, especially as we were starting to hit a nice rhythm in the race," said Ricciardo.
"We’ll take the positives from it, move on and go again in Barcelona.
Unfortunately, the three-place grid penalty isn’t ideal, but it’s one I’ll accept for my error and I’ll deal with it as best as I can in Spain.
"Maybe it’s time to crack out some of the overtaking moves!"
Indeed, a bout of on-track aggression laced with a spell of Ricciardo magic will likely be necessary to ensure a spot among the top-ten next weekend, but first and foremost the Honey Badger will need to keep his nose clean.
"The Spanish Grand Prix is always an exciting time of the year as it’s the first European round of the season.
"Barcelona is a fun circuit, we all know it very well from all the winter and in-season testing.
"It’s a circuit I’ve always enjoyed racing at in my career: I won there in Formula Renault 3.5 and in recent years have been on the podium.
"We’ll be targeting a clean weekend right from the off on Friday and hopefully come away with some points in the bag."
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