“But he always does. I think he’s hit his head a few too many times. So I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something.
“I won’t give him the time of day but all those people can suck it. I want to say more but we’ll leave him behind.”
Ricciardo’s time was less than two-tenths from pole. Japanese team mate Yuki Tsunoda qualified eighth. Fellow Australian Oscar Piastri will start from fourth on the grid, behind Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and George Russell.
F1 Canadian Grand Prix Lineup
- George Russell MERCEDES 1:12.000
- Max Verstappen RED BULL 1:12.000
- Lando Norris MCLAREN 1:12.021
- Oscar Piastri MCLAREN 1:12.103
- Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:12.178
- Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN 1:12.228
- Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:12.280
- Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:12.414
- Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN 1:12.701
- Alexander Albon WILLIAMS 1:12.796
- Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:12.691
- Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:12.728
- Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS 1:12.736
- Kevin Magnussen HAAS 1:12.916
- Pierre Gasly ALPINE 1:12.940
- Sergio Perez RED BULL 1:13.326
- Valtteri Bottas KICK SAUBER 1:13.366
- Nico Hulkenberg HAAS 1:13.978
- Zhou Guanyu KICK SAUBER 1:14.292
- Esteban Ocon ALPINE 1:13.435 (Ocon penalised 5 grid places for causing a collision at the previous round.)
Mercedes driver Russell was ecstatic, and hopeful he could win the second race of his career in Montreal, after taking a surprise pole position in a rare qualifying “dead heat”.
He set an identical time of 1:12.000 to Red Bull’s Verstappen, but took pole by virtue of the fact that he set his time on his first run in Q3, whereas Verstappen could only match Russell’s time on his second run.
The weekend marks a 10th anniversary since Ricciardo won for the first time in Formula One at the same circuit, with Red Bull in 2014, and he recognised a ‘feel-good factor’ about the track.
“I think this year hasn’t really been always a question of if I’ve still got the speed to do it. It’s just been the consistency which I haven’t been able to show week in week out,” said the Perth-born driver.
“It’s definitely been more of a struggle, more than I thought, but I know the speed’s there and it’s just tapping into it,” he continued.
“Maybe when you’re a kid you just jump in and drive and the older you get the more things that are around your life can maybe interfere.”
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Villeneuve made light of his criticism afterwards when asked for a follow-up.
“He needed a bit of a push under pressure and it worked, it paid off,” he smiled.
“The car suits him this weekend and when you have a car that suits you, you drive at your best. That was one good qualifying. If he can carry on this weekend like this and do four, five, six more races like this then he’ll be fine.”
Reuters