After starting fifth on the grid, Daniel Ricciardo had high expectations of the Russian Grand Prix, but found his afternoon compromised early after taking damage on the first lap after becoming an innocent victim of the second turn clash between team-mate Daniil Kvyat and Sebastian Vettel.
The Red Bull Racing driver admitted his frustrations after the damage left him at the back of the field, although his progress was not helped by the team’s decision to put the Medium Pirelli tyre on at the stop that ultimately turned out to be the wrong decision.
Ricciardo ended the race outside the points, finishing twelfth on the road, although this became eleventh when Carlos Sainz Jr had ten seconds added to his race time for pushing Jolyon Palmer off the road during the race.
“It’s frustrating and a shame to be out of the race more or less from the first lap onwards but I think these things happen with racing,” said Ricciardo.
“After the start I felt a big hit. I saw Seb come into me but it looked like he got hit as well. We had a lot of damage and had to pit. We thought we’d try the mediums but that wasn’t really working.
“Unfortunately the damage was so much that we didn’t really learn anything from today’s race and we don’t know what our pace was. Barcelona and Monaco should be better, so we have a few races to be excited about.”