Ricciardo happy to keep pace with Mercedes and Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo insists Renault deserved their fourth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, and thinks the car displayed enough speed to show they can sometimes keep up with Mercedes and Ferrari.

With the Australian in fourth and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in fifth, Renault secured their first double-finish inside the top five since 2008.

Even though the pair were never in the mix for the victory, they got among the top four with Hulkenberg even pulling off an impressively powerful overtake on Sebastian Vettel.

It has been a struggle overall for Renault this year, with them unable to convert qualifying pace to race pace for the most part, but Ricciardo thinks this result shows what the car can do.

“Since Canada we haven't really got the maximum result out of it. We had a decent run in Silverstone but got done over by a VSC or something there,” he told Sky Sports.

“Today actually the VSC gave us a bit of a buffer, a bit of comfort in the end, so that was nice.

“I really believe we were a fourth-place car today. Obviously, Seb gave us some help. I saw he spun, I don't know if he had a problem.

“Once we were in fourth, I definitely felt like we had the pace.”

As for whether Renault can continue this form going forward, Ricciardo reckons it might be track dependant.

“I really wish we can and hope we can. We're coming up to different circuits. High downforce, Singapore. Street circuit. Bumpy,” he responded when asked if the team could achieve similar results to Monza.

“Even though this is unique, it is Monza, you take all the wing off. I definitely feel there is something we can still learn from this.”

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