Ricciardo targets ‘good points’ to reward team

Daniel Ricciardo is aiming for “good points” at the British Grand Prix to reward his Renault team for their Friday night overtime.

Renault played one of their two ‘jokers’ for the season at Silverstone as their mechanics changed the chassis on Ricciardo’s car due to a hairline fracture, breaking the FIA curfew to work after midnight between FP2 and FP3.

But the extra hours paid dividends as the Australian and his team-mate Esteban Ocon both reached Q3, securing eighth and ninth positions on the grid respectively for Sunday’s race.

“I’m happy with eighth place today, especially in quite tricky conditions,” said Ricciardo at a windy Silverstone.

“It was a clean lap, no mistakes, nothing too spectacular but good enough for eighth and just short of seventh.

“It was pretty close there with a few of us within half a second of each other. We’ve been in and around the top 10 all weekend so we can be pleased with today’s performance.

“Tomorrow’s race will be interesting, especially in the battle for sixth or maybe fifth position. We are starting on the soft tyres, as are most people around us, so we’ll see what we can do. Taking home good points is the target.”

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Ocon, meanwhile, thought he had been on course for better than P9 but, like Ricciardo, believes Renault tend to be stronger on race days.

“It’s been a good qualifying overall,” said the Frenchman. “It was a very positive session, especially Q1 and Q2 when we were quite comfortable. We lost it a little bit in Q3, so we will review what happened there.

“I’m happy with the progress from Hungary and we need to keep going. We seem to have better pace on Sundays and qualifying has been the area where we have needed to find the most improvements.

“I think tomorrow will be good, we’re in amongst the top 10 and we have a good opportunity for some decent points.”

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