Alex Brundle hails £105k-a-week driver who was ‘back to his best’ at the Chinese Grand Prix

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The Chinese Grand Prix provided lots of talking points but ultimately saw Max Verstappen take the chequered flag once again.

Lando Norris achieved the rare feat of finishing ahead of a fully functioning Red Bull but Sergio Perez still managed to finish on the podium.

On the Formula 1 Post-Race Show, pundit Alex Brundle was reviewing Sunday’s action and one driver in particular stood out to him.

There were fascinating battles throughout the field and as Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen proved towards the end of the race, pride is just as good a motivator as points.

They fought fiercely despite being nowhere near the top ten and epitomised what Formula 1 is all about.

Unfortunately, Stroll was only part of this battle because he was forced to pit after smashing into the back of Daniel Ricciardo at the first safety car restart.

He had better luck than Ricciardo who was on course for his best result of the season and Alex Brundle hailed the Australian’s effort despite his DNF.

Damon Hill suggested after the race that Ricciardo must have broken a mirror due to the amount of bad luck he was having.

However, there were still plenty of positives for the £105,000-a-week driver to take after as his tough start to the season appears to be easing.

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Alex Brundle thinks Daniel Ricciardo is ‘back to his best’ after Chinese Grand Prix

For the first time this season, Daniel Ricciardo looked like he could compete with Yuki Tsunoda throughout the race weekend.

He out-qualified the Japanese driver in both the Sprint Race and Sunday’s Grand Prix with Tsunoda confused about his pace.

It’s a very similar issue that Ricciardo was experiencing in Australia and suggests there’s potentially an issue with the RB car.

Ricciardo had a new chassis in China but sporting director Alan Permane is sceptical that it would make any difference.

He said ahead of the race: “The reason I say it’s ever so unlikely [to improve Ricciardo’s performance] is because it really is. It’s not a performance differentiator.”

However, it might have had a placebo effect for Ricciardo and Brundle thought the Australian looked much closer to his best.

RB can count themselves very unlucky that neither driver finished the Grand Prix.

And unfortunately, Haas gained another point in the battle to finish 6^th between the bottom five constructors.

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Positives to take for Visa Cash App RB despite double DNF

Speaking about the RB drivers, Brundle said: “He [Yuki Tsunoda] was moving through in his typical fashion with gusto wasn’t he Tsunoda?

“They’ll be most buoyed I think by the fact that [Daniel] Ricciardo seems to be back to his best and like you say, on the brink of points and points are what they need at the moment to keep on responding.

“They have had Tsunoda up in the points back in Japan but they need both drivers just trying to nudge into the points all the time so that when the inevitable does happen at some stage, they can snatch some proper stuff and move them into the midtable.”

Daniel Ricciardo will hope Brundle is right and he is returning to his best.

He would have had a brilliant chance of scoring his first point and if he’s still at RB in 2025, might be a beneficiary of a proposed new points system that would have already seen him get off the mark.

He needs to start putting Tsunoda under more pressure and eventually finishing ahead of him to achieve his dream of returning to Red Bull. Otherwise, he has a decision to make on how long he wants to spend in Formula 1 fighting other backmarkers.