Ricciardo relieved McLaren closer to rivals than feared

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL35M locks up under braking. 12.11.2021. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, Brazilian Grand Prix, Sao Paulo
© XPB 

Daniel Ricciardo is pleased that McLaren came alive in qualifying, with both cars making it into the final top ten pole shoot-out round and closer to their main rivals Ferrari and AlphaTauri than expected.

Lando Norris finished Friday evening's session in eighth place just ahead of Ricciardo, with both drivers hoping to make progress in tomorrow's sprint race to improve their prsoects in the Sao Pauli Grand Prix.

“It’s only an eighth and ninth but from where we were this morning we can be happy with that," said Ricciardo. "To get both cars in Q3 is not a bad afternoon.

"I know it’s towards the tail-end of the top ten, but the deficit is a lot smaller than we thought," he said. "We’re there, we’re in the fight, and we can put some pressure on them now.

Neither McLaren had mad it into the top ten in the earlier session, with Ricciardo mired in 19th place at the end of FP1.

"We’ll look to move up from here but the step we made from this morning to this evening was pretty good.”

"We didn’t run the soft earlier but I felt like we didn’t have a whole lot of pace to show either," he admitted. "It felt better on the soft [in qualifying]."

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL35M. 12.11.2021. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, Brazilian Grand Prix, Sao Paulo

Norris was also relieved to see McLaren rebounding from its issues earlier in the day.

“I think we have to be happy with qualifying, because we were struggling quite a bit this morning in FP1," he said. "After making some good improvements coming into quali, I felt a lot more confident with the car

"We would’ve loved to have been ahead of the Ferraris, but we have to take P8 and P9 today because they were quicker," he added. "We’re in a good position to fight them tomorrow."

"“At the end of the first day of this sprint event in Brazil we’re relatively satisfied," declared McLaren'e executive racing director Andrea Stella. "e’re in the game, that’s the important thing.

"The mechanics in the garage did a good job late last night in difficult circumstances to get the cars ready to perform.

"We now have to carry on that work in FP2, have a good sprint qualifying and progress towards scoring good points on Sunday.”

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