Mexico City [Mexico], October 30 (ANI): AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo completed seventh within the Mexico City Grand Prix after a hard-fought race, with the Australian relishing being again on the pointy finish of the sector and competing with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes.
In solely his second weekend again after breaking his hand at Zandvoort, Ricciardo was one of many standout – and shock – performers in qualifying on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez forward of native hero Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Ricciardo then confirmed wonderful efficiency all through the race, however ultimately slid to seventh place on the end, with the Australian believing that the crimson flag introduced out for Kevin Magnussen’s dramatic crash had price him.
“I am… To be honest, when I saw the red flag, I was like ‘urgggh’, because the race was just kind of going very nice and smooth and we were in fifth and everything was kind of on plan and at that point, it looked like we could have finished fifth,” Ricciardo stated of if he was glad with the end result as quoted as saying by Formula 1.
“But on the other hand, when there’s a big crash, you can’t think too much about yourself obviously. It was good to hear that Kevin was okay, and I heard it was a car failure as well, so out of his control and that’s racing, these things happen and it’s the same for everyone,” he added.
Ricciardo’s tempo was so robust that he spent the ultimate few laps chasing down George Russell’s Mercedes, developing simply half a second brief on the end – with Ricciardo conceding that P6 would have been an incredible bonus.
“Some people had different tyres for the restart, so we were probably a little bit hindered [compared] to some cars with the medium,” Ricciardo stated.
“I think we still did well to still grab a top-seven… I think sixth would have been even nicer but to fight a Mercedes at the end of the race – big picture, we have to be very happy, It’s definitely more fun fighting at the front. It just feels better, feels right, so happy with the weekend and we’ll try to keep this thing rolling,” he added.
Meanwhile, a day that promised a big haul of factors for AlphaTauri was hindered by a crash for Ricciardo’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda when difficult Oscar Piastri for P7, the following spin dropping the Japanese driver to twelfth on the end. (ANI)