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Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M
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Special feature

Why McLaren doesn’t doubt Ricciardo can escape his ‘dark’ place

Three points finishes from as many starts represents a decent opening innings on paper, but Daniel Ricciardo has endured a tough start to his McLaren career - only magnified his team-mate's excellent form. Yet both he and the team have good reason to expect a turnaround soon

Even Formula 1’s happiest and most smiley driver could not hide the scale of disappointment about his shock Q1 exit in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Having felt that he had been on the verge of a breakthrough in his performance at Portimao, after an Imola event where he never felt fully on top of the car, it all came crashing down heavily in qualifying last weekend for Daniel Ricciardo. At a loss to explain why he could not pull any pace as he wound up 16th on the grid, the new McLaren signing told TV reporters straight after he got out of the car: “To be standing here now, it's pretty dark.”

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