Daniel Ricciardo labelled the Monaco Grand Prix weekend as the best of his Formula 1 career after he dominated the weekend's action.
Ricciardo topped all three practice sessions, led the way in each of the three-stage qualifying session and was never headed throughout the 78-lap race as he went on to triumph, only missing out on the fastest lap.
It marked the first time that Ricciardo had won a race starting from the leading three positions on the grid.
Ricciardo’s win also came despite suffering a loss of power for much of the race, with an MGU-K failure robbing him of speed, and prompting moving the brake balance forward to combat rear overheating.
“I think it was definitely my best weekend and the most satisfying,” he said.
“Right now, there’s still a lot to process but as I said, once it all settles I think yeah, I could probably say that.
“You know the race itself… it’s a different race to a China. China obviously got everything going and got the adrenalin going and whatnot but as a whole this is probably the best weekend of my career.”
Ricciardo also explained that he was eager to get the race underway after a “draining” weekend, with the usual event build-up extended by a day.
“Obviously it’s a long weekend here with the practice on a Thursday, it stretches the weekend an extra day so it’s a long week,” he said.
“There’s obviously a lot of hype – I mean I love it, it is the most fun weekend of the year but it is pretty draining.
“The race obviously starts an hour later now – an hour and 10 minutes later [than in 2017].
“Yeah, you’re just trying to like control everything until the moment of the race. I kind of wish the race was at 10 in the morning so we could just get it done already!
“Going through all that and then finally starting, getting a good start, that was really the key moment and then obviously, as I mentioned, the problems I had, that obviously threw a lot of doubt in my mind for a few laps.
“Every lap I got by with no extra problems was a little victory so happy to see the chequered flag.”
Ricciardo's win promoted him to third in the championship, 38 points behind Lewis Hamilton.
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