After a disappointing outing in Monaco, Daniel Ricciardo needs to return to his best this weekend. While his teammate, Lando Norris, has been leading McLaren’s charge this season, Ricciardo has struggled across all five races so far.

However, a P5 finish in the first practice session in Baku on Friday might just be what the Australian needed to find his glory again. Despite finishing P13 in the second practice session, he put in good laps most of the time yesterday. After the practice session, Ricciardo revealed what he did after the previous race in Monaco, heading into this weekend in Baku.

Daniel Ricciardo believes the work in the simulator has paid off

With just 24 points from the first five races, Ricciardo is going through one of his worst starts to an F1 season. Although the Australian joined McLaren to challenge for places further up the grid, the season hasn’t turned out that way so far, to say the least.

He needs a good performance this weekend in Baku to turn his season around. And his P5 finish in the first practice session on Friday couldn’t have come at a better time.

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After both practice sessions yesterday, Ricciardo attributed his performance to the work done in the simulator finally paying off. He said, “I did quite a bit of work from Monaco into this race, spent a few days on the sim. And I think the work has paid off.”

With another practice session left before qualifying today, the Honey Badger will hope to keep the momentum going this weekend.

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Ricciardo: Just need to pull it all together

With an improved showing in Baku yesterday, Ricciardo pointed out what he needs to do this weekend. He believes that the only thing left for him to do now is execute his work to the best of his ability across the weekend.

The 31-year-old said, “Everything feels as expected. I just gotta now execute what I know I can do, and just put it all together.”

While he’s going through a tough time, the joker in Ricciardo couldn’t hold back. When asked what he expected from qualifying later today, he had a simple response. “Somewhere between 1 and 20! We’ll see.”

A race winner here in 2017, Ricciardo will hope Baku can turn his season around. Can the “king of the late brakers” bring home a big points-finish this weekend?

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