Ricciardo in 'dark place' after poor qualifying: 'Didn't want to be here anymore'

Daniel Ricciardo seems to have finally broken the spell at McLaren. Not only did he score the first win for the team in years, but for the first time, he was truly one with the car and was the team's man.

Ricciardo has had a difficult season at McLaren so far. The Australian was brought in as a top driver, but could so far not live up to that status. Lando Norris has been the team's main driver until now, but Ricciardo finally seems to have found his form, with a victory at Monza.

''It's obviously an end result of very hard work. It's been catching up because I started from behind. That's nobody's fault, it was just me having to get used to the car and the team. The team supported me enormously, and maybe that was the frustrating part. Everything felt good, just the results didn't come,'' says Ricciardo at Sky Sports.

''In Belgium, it already felt better, and that gave us some confidence. From the first free practice at Monza, the car felt good. After qualifying, I was in a dark place. I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to win again and be the man. That did me good. Relatively for the season, it was a good session, but the winner in me had the burning feeling that it wasn't enough yet. It's easy to say now, but from that Friday I was a man on a mission,'' the Australian concludes.