Ricciardo surprised by Renault's Canada pace in 'massive' qualifying

Daniel Ricciardo made no secret of his surprise after qualifying fourth for Renault in Canada on Saturday, conceding he did not expect the team’s recent progress to lift him onto the second row of the grid.

Ricciardo charged to Renault’s best qualifying result in almost nine years as he took P4 in qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, trailing only Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Q3.

After a difficult start to the season following his winter move from Red Bull, Ricciardo was buoyed by the result, and admitted he did not expect to have finished so highly in the session.

“I don't want to say I can't believe it. For me to be this happy with a fourth, it really means something,” Ricciardo said.

“For the team as well, I told them on the radio to enjoy this, we'll think about the race in a few hours or even in the morning, but right now, we need to enjoy it because it's awesome.

“We've got three Q3s in a row now, but a fourth is massive. I think just over a tenth from third. I still don't really know where this speed came from - I mean I do, but we didn't expect it to equate to a fourth place.

“It's good, making progress, and personally I guess each weekend I'm in the car, I'm feeling more and more at home with them and learning to get on top of it. It's all starting to come together quite nicely.”

Ricciardo will be the leading driver starting tomorrow’s race on the Soft compound tyre, giving the Australian hope he may be able to fight with the Medium runners ahead off the start.

However, he stressed his focus was on bringing home a good haul of points.

“I'm pretty confident we'll be OK tomorrow. The group we're in, it's hard to say obviously, I'm surrounded by a few quicker cars, but on the Soft tyre, maybe we could be in the top three in the start if the cars in front start on the Mediums,” Ricciardo said.

“You never know what's going to happen. I think once the pace settles, the top teams will probably stretch it out a little bit, but we'll try and remain inside the top four, top five, and get some points that we maybe missed out on in Monaco.”

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli.