After a difficult weekend and a five-second penalty during his solitary pit stop as a result of his pre-race engine change, Daniel Ricciardo drove a strong looking race to climb from eighteenth on the grid to finish tenth at the Red Bull Ring.
Despite losing the opportunity to fight for ninth when he was forced to let the Felipe Massa/Sebastian Vettel battle past him, the Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver felt he had a good feeling with the RB11 during the race, and hopes to work more on it when he drives it again during this weeks upcoming test at the Austrian circuit.
“I was pleased with the car during the race,” insisted Ricciardo. “I was trying to push as much as I could towards the end to catch Perez but the boys behind me were fighting for the podium and I had to respect that.
“I was really happy with the option tyre, the balance of the car worked well. To finish tenth is a good result from where we started today. I’m staying on here for a day’s testing this week and I hope that despite the bad weather forecast we’ll be able to get some useful work done before the next round in Silverstone.”