Daniel Ricciardo had a quiet 2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit to claim his first points and believes it was best that Renault F1 Team could have asked for.
The Australian had qualified and started in seventh, the best grid spot for him this year so far. He remained in control throughout the whole race on a one-stop despite Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen hunting him down in the closing stages.
Ricciardo was overall pleased to most importantly score his first points for the Enstone-based squad.
“It’s good to get on the board, finish the race and have my first points with the team,” Ricciardo said.
“We’ll take the positives from that. It might have looked a simple seventh, but it wasn’t easy. It was a bit of a lonely race, I didn’t have so many battles but I was being pushed hard from the cars behind all the way to the end.”
The Chinese result has lifted the 29-year old to eleventh in the Drivers’ Championship, tied on points with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. Now that his maiden points for 2019 have been secured, he is confident that Renault can “push on” to carry the momentum over the course of the season.
“It’s a strong result and the best we can ask for; at least for today. We want to push on from this over the next couple of races and keep working from here.”
