By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
Daniel Ricciardo was left disappointed once again in an underwhelming finish of seventh in the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Aussie was optimistic after qualifying fourth on Saturday, but from the start of the race found himself falling behind of Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen right from the opening lap. Ricciardo then went into a two-stop strategy and fell victim to a slow second pit stop that dropped him further down the running order.
Meanwhile, Verstappen enjoyed a fourth place result and has now bettered Ricciardo in two of the three races they have run together, including a win in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The mistakes in Canada was just another footnote in an already frustrating season, which has forced an emotional Ricciardo speak up more frequently.
“Not a great Sunday,” said Ricciardo.”We just couldn’t get break. We weren’t too bad off the line but I couldn’t really get any momentum out of Turn 2, so we lost a place to Max.
“I had some pretty good speed in the first stint on the ultra softs, we were using the tires quite well and said on the radio that we would be quicker in clean air.
“Whenever we were behind someone we couldn’t use the tires anymore and even with the long DRS we couldn’t get close enough to pass.”
Ricciardo also mentioned that it hadn’t been a clean race for the team or himself.
“There were a few scrappy parts from my side and the team side today was not a clean race. I locked a brake into Turn 13 and damaged the second set of tires, and then a few of the pit stops and call were a bit average again. We’ve got to clean things up for Sundays.”
Had he passed his teammate early on, Ricciardo thinks the afternoon may have looked different.
“It would have made a pretty big difference but there’s no point saying what could have been,” Ricciardo said.
“We were definitely a lot quicker in clean air, but we did struggle in traffic today. We couldn’t really make that next step behind other cars which certainly killed the tires quite quickly.”
