Red Bull: Ricciardo takes his first podium of the season
Daniel Ricciardo secured his first podium finish of the season after a lonely race, taking advantage of the retirements in front of him. Max Verstappen, who had a tangle with Kimi Räikkönen, didn't get further than the first lap of the race.
Daniel Ricciardo had a smile on his face as he exited his car. Behind his teammate all weekend, the Australian climbs to the third step of the podium after the double retirement of the other Red Bull and Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari in the first corner of the first lap and Valtteri Bottas’ engine failure.
« I’m happy to be back on the podium! The first of the season for me, which is nice even though my race was a bit lonely. » confided the Red Bull driver.
Indeed, not fast enough to catch Hamilton and Vettel ahead of him, all he could do was fend off the two Force Indias, too far away to reach him: I didn’t really have any battles and my race was about maintaining the pace and my concentration. I was lucky with Valtteri’s problems at the end of the race which propelled me to third place.
But being so far from the top two doesn’t really satisfy the Australian; « Today, we will enjoy this podium, but starting tomorrow, we’ll have to work to close the gap on the leaders. I don’t think it’s impossible to catch up to them, but maybe it will take a little longer than expected. »
Victim of the first corner incident after the start, Max Verstappen couldn’t go beyond the first lap: « I tried to take the outside of the corner, where there was space. If Valtteri hadn’t touched Kimi, I think there would have been enough room for us to make it through the corner. Because of that contact, Kimi lost control and hit me. But it wasn’t his fault,” concluded the Dutchman.
