Daniel Ricciardo has said that he was surprised that it was a mechanical failure that took him out of the race considering amount of contact during the opening stages of the 2017 United States Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver started the race from fourth place on the grid and battled hard with Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Valtteri Bottas from the early laps.
“It’s obviously never nice to be out of the race early.” said Ricciardo. ” There were a lot of elbows out and you could see a lot of contact, so I wouldn’t have suspected it would be due to a mechanical issue but of course it was disappointing to finish early.”
“I think I tried to get the most out of it today and the laps I raced were fun but also frustrating. I felt that, especially earlier on, we were quicker than Valtteri [Bottas], but I always had to come from so far back that it was never going to be an easy move.”
Ricciardo was sure that he would have been able to get the drop on Bottas and was glad that he tried to overtake when he could.
“I tried a lot of times to make it stick but could never quite manage it. I wasn’t going to drive behind him all weekend wondering what could have been, so I don’t have any regrets with the moves I tried.
“It’s just frustrating to not continue that battle. I did enjoy it out there though. Every time I tried to overtake Valtteri he would just slip back underneath me and I thought: alright let’s try again.”
Looking ahead to the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix this coming weekend the Australian believes he will be heading in to the race with a penalty for an engine change, but is relishing the challenge.
“I think we’ll probably have to take a penalty which means that I will start at the back in Mexico. I’ll do my best to try and charge through the field and you’ll hopefully see more of today in Mexico.”
