Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso battle for P5 at the German Grand Prix 2014
“Daniel is a surprise from Australia,” Alonso said. “I think he’s doing unbelievable; I think he’s seven-three [in qualifying] in the first ten races with Sebastian [Vettel], so it’s something we probably didn’t suspect. He’s driving fantastically and today he was battling very smart – always taking the slipstream of me after I pass him and braking very late, attacking very late and never missing a corner. He was very, very smart, very respectful with the rules and it was a great fight.”
— Fernando praising Daniel and his race craft afterwards via Sky Sports
And then Germany '14 ... i felt like I hadn't earned Alonso's respect until that day. I still had a point to prove with him. He came out of the pits behind me in fresher tyres and cruised past me on the straight but he left the door open, probably not expecting me to re-pass, so I went for it. We had this cat and mouse game after that for the next handful of laps and it was big to show him that I was prepared to put up a fight on inferior tyres while keeping it clean. He said some nice things about me afterwards, so I think he looked at me differently after that.
— Daniel talking about the career moments he’s most proud of via ilovejevsjeans
