Ricciardo: Beating Hamilton was a ‘little win’

Editor

Finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Canada, Daniel Ricciardo believes a World title bid is “still a reality.”

The Monaco Grand Prix winner headed to Montreal acknowledging that the power-hungry track does not generally suit Red Bull and its Renault engine.

He qualified fifth for the race and brought his RB14 home in fourth place having edged then-championship leader Hamilton.

The race result at the front, a win for Sebastian Vettel, means the Ferrari driver now leads the standings by a single point over Hamilton while Ricciardo is 37 points off the pace.

Asked about his chances of winning this year’s World title, he replied: “It’s still a reality. I don’t know [whether] Lewis, let’s say, had issues this weekend but this is normally a really strong track for him.

“For us to take a few points away, I think it’s a little win and gives us a lot of encouragement coming in for the next few races.

“It’s normally a strong track for Mercedes. So for us to take a few points away, I think it’s a little win and gives us a lot of encouragement coming in for the next few races.

“It was fun. It felt good. I came on the radio and said, ‘I think I can keep this pace’ so I kind of hinted we could probably go again but once they saw I overcut Lewis, that was enough.”

He added: “We got some good points and I believe we gained two points in the championship because we got Lewis.”