Renault DP World F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo is frustrated following the Styrian Grand Prix this weekend after losing out on finishing in sixth place, having to settle for eighth after being forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision three laps before the end of the race.
The Australian racer was forced to give room to BWT Racing Point One Team’s Lance Stroll, fearing that if he turned him, he would have forced him off the circuit and potentially caused him to crash out.
Ricciardo said that to begin with, his race was going as he had hoped; he had started well, and was managing to make progress through the pack after starting in eighth. He felt the Medium tyres worked well, but felt he lacked pace after switching to the Softs.
He said: “We certainly hoped for more today. I had a good start and made some decent progress up the order. The Mediums felt good on our first stint, but when we put the Soft on it wasn’t as quick as we’d hoped, and it didn’t really give us as much as we’d thought.”
Although he was disappointed at not being able to regain the position, Ricciardo recognised it was better to take evasive action than cause Stroll to crash.
“The end of the race was frustrating, and I was struggling to hold on to the position on the last couple of laps. On the incident, I did see Stroll coming but I felt if I turned in, we would have crashed, so I had to make that call.
“I maybe should have blocked him and it’s a shame to lose a couple of positions from that one moment. The overriding feeling is frustration, but we’re up and running for the season now.”
