WATCH: Daniel Ricciardo Takes a Cheeky Swipe at Valtteri Bottas for His Practice Spin

Daniel Ricciardo cherished a brilliant end to Friday after the Australian clocked an incredible lap time to finish P2 in the second practice session.

And amidst so many positives revolving around him, the McLaren driver couldn’t resist picking on Valtteri Bottas, who meanwhile had a nightmare end to the session.

The Finn had an embarrassing spin in the pit lane after showing up at Mercedes’ pit box for a change of tires. During the getaway, Bottas suffered massive wheel spin on the fresh hard tires and ended up spinning right in front of McLaren’s garage.

McLaren subsequently posted an image on social media, trolling Bottas. The image portrayed the Papaya crew helping the Mercedes get back on track. The British outfit captioned, “Mercedes, you ok, hun?”

Then arrived the cameo from their very own driver, Ricciardo, who may have been in a good mood after the productive Friday sessions.

How did Daniel Ricciardo respond?

Although Bottas ended up facing a 3-place grid penalty for ‘dangerous driving’, Ricciardo saw the funnier side to the incident and gave a rather hilarious response to McLaren’s post.

“Drifting out of the garage is my thing. Drifting out of the box is not Valtteri’s thing,” he replied, leaving the fans cracking up quite hard.

Both Ricciardo and Bottas started the season off on the wrong foot, with neither of them showing pace to beat their teammates. However, the former seems to be regaining his confidence in the battle against the in-form Lando Norris.

After finishing P6 in France, Ricciardo looked much more comfortable in Austria, constantly posting good enough lap times. On the contrary, there is Bottas, who is struggling to pace along with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. The difference in points has always blown up to 60 points.

Read More: Why Do F1 Drivers Pickup Rubber?

Can McLaren extend their dominance into Styria?

Of course, McLaren were unstoppable during the race in France. But it would be unfair to expect the same at the Red Bull Ring this weekend, with Alpine, Aston Martin, and AlphaTauri looking equally strong.

What’s more, most of the teams are within the 1-second gap to the leading team. And this is likely to persist through qualifying as well. Hence, there is no room for error, as even losing a few hundredths of a second could cost the driver a position or two.

Hence, amidst the closely packed grid, which team is likely to claim the best-of-the-rest tag at the Styrian Grand Prix qualifying? Well, regardless of who claims it, the viewers are in for a treat, with rains likely play a role in the session as well.

Watch Story: Toto Wolff Swears, Valtteri Bottas Bares: Funniest Moments From Drive to Survive