Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

What happened to Nico Rosberg in Monaco - why was he two seconds and more a lap slower than team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the opening wet laps, as well as not much faster on intermediates on a drying track than Hamilton on full wets? 

Rosberg says: "It was a bad day in the office, everything came together all the bad stuff and especially in Monaco when you start having a few issues here and there it sort of spirals downwards and you get that massively bad result, we have analysed it, understood it, most of the stuff and now it’s gone. It starts with some issues then losing confidence in the car, having a bad feeling, staying a bit further from the limit, then things go cold so it was a spiral."

In other words, exactly what was suspected after the race - there was nothing wrong with the car; he was just unable to keep the required heat in the brakes and tyres, while Hamilton could, despite lapping at the same speed.

Image source, Getty Images

Out goes Nico Rosberg for his installation lap. He'll be keen to bounce back in Canada after struggling for pace early on in Monaco, resulting in him letting Lewis Hamilton by to push for the win.

On flicks the green light and first practice is under way. Romain Grosjean is the first man out.

Cheeky

Cannot decide if this is genius or purely ridiculous. Regardless, he's a brave man to wear it in public.

Ferrari hat's great though...

Image source, Getty Images

And if you haven't already, click on the link in Tom's tweet below to download the Canadian GP preview podcast.

Right then, it's almost time for some on track action as first practice gets under way in Canada in five minutes.

Commentary from Jack Nicholls and the gang has just started and you can listen to them via this very page.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Lewis Hamilton finally got his title challenge motoring with victory in Monaco last time - his first win since Austin last October - but the travails of his first five races have ensured he is still keeping his confidence well in check. 

"I feel positive coming here but of course I'm conscious of how the season's gone so far," Hamilton said. 

"I'm not arriving all excited thinking everything's going to go great again, just because we've had one win. I'm conscious that there are potholes that we could easily manoeuvre, but could also fall down. I'm just conscious of those bumps that are potentially ahead. If we have a smooth weekend, that will be amazing. If we have a smooth weekend in terms of performance it should be a happy weekend."

You can see where he is coming from - even the Monaco win came after yet another reliability problem in qualifying had left him third on the grid, after which - and before Sunday’s rain - he felt his hopes of victory had again been dashed.”

Image source, Getty Images

One person who has probably can't stop smiling at the moment is Lewis Hamilton.

He's had his fare share of reliability problems this season but he finally got that first win of the season in Monaco last time out.

Will he follow that up with another this weekend?

We know a race win on Sunday will get that wonderful smile back on Daniel Ricciardo's face but in the meantime, what do you think can get the great man smiling? Send your suggestions, images, memes or even videos to #makericciardosmile, external

I'll kick things off with a surprised koala meme:

Image source, Imgur

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

How did Daniel Ricciardo calm himself down after the anger and disappointment of Sunday in Monaco? "I gave it a few days to cool off," he said, and then he phoned team boss Christian Horner, who explained what had happened - the second time in two weeks Horner had found himself in that position after the strategy failure in Spain - and then later in the week called engineer Simon Rennie to go through it in detail. 

"The second pit stop was a bit of a reaction to what Lewis had done and the (tyre) compound they wanted was not there and ready to go. It was a rushed decision when it didn’t need to be. But they say they have done some stuff with software and if they were to make a late decision again and they would get a decision straight away on whether it could be done. That’s what everyone talked about but I was asking just as many questions about the first pit stop. I wanted that to be looked at, because that put us in a race with Lewis which we didn't need to be."

For this weekend, Ricciardo says he is ‘still carrying that fire with me’ and he hopes to put it to good effect pressuring Mercedes in the race. 

"I don’t think they will be a second in front of the field here," he said, "and if Ferrari have some updates, both us and them should be within half a second and then in the race you never know what is going to happen."

Image source, Getty Images

So here we are in Montreal and still that famous Daniel Ricciardo smile is missing. It's a bit unsettling really, like the world is off axis.

If he doesn't get the rub of the green soon, I fear he's going to be pushing Kimi close for being Formula 1's least smiley driver.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

By rights, Daniel Ricciardo should have arrived in Montreal this weekend as winner of the last two races and only 27 rather than 40 points off the championship lead. That he has not is down solely to his Red Bull team, who put him on the wrong strategy in Spain, then made a questionable strategy call again in Monaco before losing him the win with a cack-handed pit stop. 

The famous smile has been very much less in evidence since then, but Ricciardo said on Thursday he had now ‘put it behind me’. He added: "It took some time to get over it, but what’s done is done and my dad used to say: ‘If you look back too far you get a sore neck.’ 

"It’s good for us as a team and it was good for them to see how much I want this. The way I felt afterwards they felt back and I think they realised it’s not just about standing there on the podium. It’s that real desire that I am here for a purpose, I want to win championships and that will go a long way with them."

Image source, Getty Images

This is Daniel Ricciardo. This is how we all know and love him. Beaming, big smile.

Image source, Getty Images

This is Daniel Ricciardo after Monaco. Notice the absence of that famous smile.

This is not how we love to see him.

The Australian has had some rotten luck in the last two races. A wrong strategy call denying him a shot at victory in Spain, before a botched pit stop blew his chances in Monaco.

Will the smile be back in Canada this weekend?