Daniel Ricciardo had a dig at Max Verstappen for failing to become Formula 1’s youngest polesitter after his first pole in Hungary.
The Dutchman had been trying to break the record of 21 years and 72 days set by Sebastian Vettel at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix since he joined Red Bull as a 19-year-old in 2016.
However, instead, he only sits fourth in the list even behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, thanks mostly to Ricciardo beating him to pole last year in Mexico by just 0.026s
“I am still proud that I stopped Max from getting pole in Mexico because he is not the youngest any more, right? So I’ll still take some pride in that,” the now Renault driver told Crash.net.
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Apart from that, the Australian was pleased to see his former teammate and the team doing well.
“They [Red Bull] certainly do come on as the year goes on, and they seem to make a step even when you feel that they are a bit down and out, at times they really do put on a big update,” he stated.
“I watched the onboard of Max and it looked pretty planted, and with the Honda, they are doing well.”
Having himself only qualified a lowly 18th after a miserable end to Q1, of course, the obvious follow up was to again ask if Ricciardo stood by his decision to leave.
“Today is a big contrast of where I am and where he is, so I don’t want to say that’s hard to take, but I’d rather be where he is than where I am,” he admitted.
“But equally I still don’t regret anything 12 months down the track. I knew that today I am 18th and I really believed we’d be in the top 10, so it wouldn’t look as bad as it does now.”
It has also now been confirmed by Renault that Ricciardo will start from the back of the grid having elected to fit a new engine now rather than after the summer break.
