Daniel Ricciardo has held firm on his post-race penalty that saw the Renault driver demoted out of the points in last Sunday’s French Grand Prix, declaring, ” I would rather give it a go than not try at all.”
The Australian was adjudged by the stewards to warrant two separate five-second time penalties for his final lap incidents with Lando Norris and Kimi Räikkönen respectively – dropping the seven-time Grand Prix winner from seventh to eleventh.
However, Ricciardo wasn’t deterred by the penalties, albeit he did confess that it was “disappointing” to lose a points finish at Renault’s home-race.
“It’s clearly disappointing to drop outside the points with a post-race penalty, especially at the team’s home race.” said the Australian.
“The last lap was a lot of fun, we had a fight and I enjoyed it. I’d rather give it a go than not try at all, and I’m sure the French fans and the people at home liked watching. It’s a shame to be penalised for it, but we’ll aim to move on from that as quickly as possible. “
Ricciardo also admitted his start left the race as “hard work“, as the Renault driver dropped to tenth on the opening lap; as he was “too conservative” on the opening lap.
“In terms of the race, I feel like I missed out a little bit at the start, especially after a really good launch off the line. I braked too early for turn one and that was too conservative looking back. That made the rest of the race hard work, but we kept it clean and smooth from there,” said Ricciardo.
Ricciardo also stated that there were “a lot of positives to take” from the weekend, albeit without reward. As Formula 1 heads to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix Renault will look to fightback from their French Grand Prix woes.
The Australian said, “There are still a lot of positives to take and we’ll be looking for an immediate response in Austria.”
