Daniel Ricciardo felt the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was a frustrating one for the Infiniti Red Bull Racing, feeling the team were not that quick despite finishing with both cars inside the top five.
The Australian driver finished in fifth position, but rued the decision to change to the option Pirelli tyres during his second stop under the safety car, believing in hindsight that the Prime tyres would have given him a better opportunity to progress and challenge for a podium finish.
“It was a bit of a frustrating race,” reflected Ricciardo. “During the first stint with the options we weren’t really quick enough.
“With the prime I thought I had really good pace, but once I caught the Williams I couldn’t pass them. We lost a lot of time there and in hindsight, when the Safety Car came out, I would have liked to put the primes on as I felt I was a lot more competitive with them than with the options. Maybe it would have given us a better chance of getting to the podium.
“I wouldn’t say we were all that quick today, but to get both cars in the top 5 is okay. Sure we both want more but we’ll see what happens in Brazil.”
Ricciardo believes the venue in Mexico has raised the bar higher for other venues around the world after what he described as an ‘awesome’ weekend, and praised the fans for their support.
“The whole weekend has been awesome and this Grand Prix has set the bar even higher,” insisted Ricciardo. “The stadium is great and the fans are awesome. It’s nice to come to a new place, especially when it puts on a show like this.
“The Drivers’ Parade was awesome too. I had goose bumps. It was very exciting to see so many fans cheering for us.”
Ricciardo spoke briefly about his run-in with former team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the first corner, and felt he was on the apex of the turn and had nowhere to go, with the clash giving the Scuderia Ferrari driver a puncture.
“As for the incident with Sebastian, I was on the inside and he took the apex, so I had nowhere else to go,” insisted Ricciardo.
