Ricciardo felt effect of Covid in physically difficult Bahrain GP

Daniel Ricciardo's difficulties in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix went beyond the troubles of his MCL36, with the McLaren driver also suffering physically from the effect of his bout of Covid.

Ricciardo tested positive for the coronavirus during F1's final week of testing in Bahrain, which forbid him from driving and forced him into a week of isolation.

The Aussie therefore entered his opening race weekend of 2022 less well prepared than teammate Lando Norris, and the McLaren driver admitted not being at the peak of his physical form as he tackled the 57-lap event at Sakhir.

"I'd love to lie and say I feel awesome," he said after the race. "But yeah, I certainly felt it.

"Even if I just take lying in bed - forget COVID and just say I laid in bed for five days, that in itself was always going to make the weekend challenging and then, in addition, the feelings of COVID.

"Not the easiest race I've ever done physically, but I still felt like I was able to compete at a high enough level. Happy to get the race distance done and hopefully it gets easier from here."

Ricciardo's physical concerns were perhaps the least of his worries in Bahrain where McLaren's MCL36 was significantly off the pace, forcing its drivers to spend their evening battling in the lower tier of F1's midfield.

• Read also: Norris warns that McLaren is a 'long, long way off'

Last year's Italian Grand Prix winner said that even without his lack of preparation or physical difficulties, he wouldn't have achieved a better result than the P14 he managed to deliver in Sunday's race, with Norris just behind in P15.

"I have to take Lando as a reference," he said. "Obviously, he showed he's a very good reference from last year, and I looked at his lap in Q2 yesterday and it was only good enough for 13th, but the lap looked pretty good.

"I think, at least at this track, that was a true indication of our pace.

"If I did testing and this and that, I'd love to say maybe I could have found more time, but I think he did a decent lap yesterday, so there's not half a second sitting in the car at the moment."

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