

Ricciardo was quicker than Norris just seven times, and that fed into Sunday's race results where Norris also had the edge in 14 of the 20 Grands Prix in which both men lasted the course. With an early spell of five Saturdays where he failed to make the cut at the end of Q2, he was ultimately beaten by Norris on 15 qualifying occasions over the year. Ricciardo has cut a frustrated figure at times in the paddock as he struggled to find the right way to 'turn on' the MC元5M in qualifying early in the season. However this wasn't the end of Ricciardo's struggles, and the team as a whole lost ground to Ferrari in the final sequence of races, leaving McLaren having to settle for fourth despite that excellent early run. That was actually something of a reversal of form between them, with Norris having up to then been very much the star of the show at McLaren despite pre-season concerns that the arrival of the experienced Ricciardo would put the youngster in his place. Ricciardo would start to find his form after the summer break, and he was lucky to benefit from a clash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to be handed a clear run to victory - his first since Monaco in 2018 with Red Bull - in the Italian Grand Prix, with Norris right behind him for a McLaren 1-2. It was a double failure to score points in Hungary that was the first misfire in what had been up to then a very reliable operation, with Lando Norris wiped out by Valtteri Bottas through no fault of his own at the start of the race, and Daniel Ricciardo at the time still struggling to extract the maximum out of the MC元5M in qualifying which left him too much to do on Sunday to finish in the top ten. The Woking-based team was commandingly in front in the constructors standings for the first ten rounds, thanks to a strong run of races. Ferrari might have emerged from that fight ahead on points, but McLaren had their fair share of successes along the way and probably won't be too disappointed or worried by how it all turned out for them. There have been some very tough times for both McLaren and Ferrari in recent seasons, and it was good to see both squads fully back in the thick of it as they conducted a spirited battle over third place in the constructors standings across the entire year.
F1 2021 DRIVER LINEUP FULL
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