Ricciardo relieved: 'Many fans were thinking of an painful home race'

After two disappointing races in Bahrain and Jeddah, Daniel Ricciardo took points in Melbourne for the first time this season. The Australian is not always so lucky in his home race, but in the 2022 edition he managed to pick himself up and drive to sixth place and claim eight points in the championship.

Prior to the Australian Grand Prix, the McLaren driver was looking forward to his home race in Melbourne, where he had some input into the changes made at Albert Park. To Formula1.com he let us know he was relieved. "All weekend it’s just been a step in the right direction," he said.

"A few weeks ago in Bahrain, many home fans were thinking, ‘oh no, this is maybe going to be a painful home race for Daniel’, but it was really nice to have such a quick turnaround," Ricciardo said. The Australian could count on a lot of support from the stands. During the entire weekend more than 400,000 fans were present in Australia.

In recent years Melbourne was not a nice place for Ricciardo. Since his first race in Albert Park he failed to finish three times and was disqualified once, finishing second. Now that he seems to have found his rhythm, the focus turns to Imola. There he scored his first podium finish for Renault as recently as 2020.