You did not have to be a body language expert to work out that Daniel Ricciardo was pretty pleased with himself after Saturday's qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Australian had already been heard shouting with delight on the pit radio after his lap of 1 minute, 22.680 seconds earned third place on the grid behind the two Mercedes-GP cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
After getting out of his Red Bull Racing car in the pit lane, he fist-bumped Matteo Bonciani, the FIA’s media chief, and then turned and gave a double thumbs up to the TV cameras as he went off to be weighed with the rest of the top 10 drivers.
This was not even Ricciardo’s best qualifying effort of the season. He lined up second in China last month, so there was clearly an extra cause for his delight at being best of the non-Mercedes cars.
That reason was stood just a few steps from Ricciardo as he stood on the weighbridge, his new teammate Max Verstappen.
Ricciardo, under considerable pressure, had got the better of the Dutch teenager, who lines up fourth, in their first duel on track since being paired together.
Verstappen had been the faster in the first two parts of qualifying, and second quickest in the opening minutes of the top-10 shoot-out.
Verstappen, 18, was doing two runs in the final session, while Ricciardo, was doing only one as he looked to save an extra set of the soft tyres for Sunday’s 66-lap race at the Circuit de Catalunya.
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There was no margin for error for Ricciardo and he thrived on the pressure when he did not put a wheel wrong. His effort was only 0.680 secs off the pole-setting time of world champion Hamilton.
Ricciardo said: “I knew I had one lap and I knew I had the pace. So, it was about putting it all together.”
Verstappen added of his own efforts: “I focused on what I had to do and it worked. I’m happy. I didn’t expect to adapt to the car so quickly. I didn’t expect to be on the second row so, for me, it’s a positive feeling.”
Clearly, with the arrival of Verstappen, Ricciardo felt he had a point to prove, and he made it, though finishing ahead of the Dutchman in Sunday’s race will be equally important.
Verstappen has moved up from Toro Rosso after replacing Daniil Kvyat, and has already established a big reputation in the sport since making his debut as a 17-year-old last year.
There has not been this much hype about a young driver in the sport since the early 1990s when Michael Schumacher began his career with Jordan and then Benetton.
Back in 1991, Schumacher would be lucky to turn a wheel on track without being called a “future world champion in the making” by media commentators.
Those predictions proved spot on as Schumacher went on to notch up seven titles during his career, and it will be an interesting narrative in the years to come to see if the youngest driver to ever compete in F1 can go on to be a champion.
Red Bull saw enough in Verstappen’s strong performances at Toro Rosso to give him the chance to step up once they had become convinced that Kvyat was not meeting their expectations.
He was in the top 10 in the first three races of the season and would have been there as well in Russia had he not suffered a mechanical failure while running sixth.
The timing of the promotion was interesting in that it came after reports that both Mercedes and Ferrari had shown interest in Verstappen’s contract situation.
Red Bull do not want him going anywhere.
They made the bold decision to sign him to an F1 contract when he was 16 in the autumn of 2014 with their sister team Toro Rosso, such was their desire to get him on board, and shoving Kvyat out of the way to make space for him in their main team.
What this has now set up is a situation that is a no lose one for Red Bull, and something that should be great for the sport as a whole.
Ricciardo v Verstappen. Two of the sport’s most highly rated talents, up against each other, with the same machinery, over the remaining 17 races of the 2016 season in a rivalry to try to establish themselves.
Ricciardo has been in the same position as Verstappen, promoted from Toro Rosso for the 2014 season to partner four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo stepped up, beating Vettel consistently, and winning three races.
So he will not fear Verstappen, although he is clearly pumped up by the challenge, judging by Saturday’s joyful reaction.
For Red Bull, if Verstappen does live up to the hype then they will be very happy, and be patting themselves on the back for making the change when they did. Then they can start planning for a possible title bid in 2017.
But, if he does not and Ricciardo prevails then it only improves the Australian’s reputation further, with the team also having under contract until the end of next year.
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