United States GP: A new podium for Red Bull thanks to Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo achieved the goal he set for himself after qualifying for the United States Grand Prix: finishing on the podium. In the other Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel experienced a challenging start to the race following his departure from the pits, but came back to life in the second half of the race to finish on Alonso's heels in 7th place.
Daniel Ricciardo was optimistic yesterday about his chances of fighting for a podium spot after the qualifying session in which he managed to set the 5th fastest time. And the Australian was not wrong, managing to outperform the Williams drivers in the race to join the Mercedes drivers on the podium in Austin.
The Red Bull driver believes, as quoted by GPUpdate, that this result was the best the Austrian team could achieve for this race held at the Circuit of the Americas: « We do what we can. Thanks to Red Bull for giving me a car capable of fighting for the podium. I’m really happy with this third place. »
Ricciardo lost places at the start but managed to climb back up following the pit stop of the safety car: « You can overtake here! I got Magnussen and Alonso on the new start so it wasn’t that boring. »
Anecdotally, with this third place, the Perth native is now 102 points behind Lewis Hamilton and is no longer a contender for the world championship title with a maximum of 75 points available in the last two races of the 2014 season.
For his teammate at Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel, things didn’t go too badly. Indeed, the German had predicted a possible 7th place yesterday, considering his start from the pit lane after a complete change of his Renault power unit. Despite a somewhat lackluster race, particularly in the first half, the four-time world champion achieved his goal, finishing 7th at the checkered flag in Austin.
« The first half of the race was not very good, but the second half allowed us to come back to life. We were able to make up ground with a pit stop at the end of the race. We decided to put on new tires with only a few laps to go, so we were in a strong position compared to others who were struggling with older tires and the pace was better, » said Vettel, quoted by GPUpdate.
Vettel finished just half a second behind the 6th place held by Fernando Alonso. He had focused everything on the race, with specific settings, but it wasn’t easy to manage: « The low downforce settings were good for overtaking, but it made it difficult to stay close to others. »
