Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo Takes a Cheeky Dig at Kimi Raikkonen

Following the French Grand Prix qualifying session, Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo ended up 8th on the grid. This put him smack dab alongside former teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had a disastrous qualifying.

Speaking to the media after the session, Daniel Ricciardo spoke about his overall qualifying. He admitted that he was forced to abandon his first Q2 lap and put on medium tyres. The Australian driver knew that they had their work cut out for them, as this was the first time they were on medium tires. Luckily for them, he managed to bang in a good lap time and get into Q3 and slot into 8th.

Then, he was asked to comment on the incident with Kimi Raikkonen. He admitted that he had just heard about the incident and was being called by the FIA. The incident involved himself, Kimi Raikkonen, and Romain Grosjean.

Daniel Ricciardo confessed that the situation was quite hectic as most of the pack were on timed laps. So, all Ricciardo could do was try and stay out of everyone else’s way and avoid getting a penalty. However, he was confident that the cameras would reveal the truth of the matter.

Then, the interviewer then asked Ricciardo to pull of his ‘best pleading face’, to with the Renault driver gladly obliged. Then he cheekily added, “that’s probably more emotion than Kimi ever showed”.

While Daniel Ricciardo ended up in the top 10, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were not so lucky. Both drivers languished at the tail end of the order after being eliminated in Q1. At Le Castellet, the track evolution played a big role and nearly caused another upset as Max Verstappen escaped the elimination zone by the skin of his teeth. Luckily, he lived to race another time and ended his session in a fine 4th place.