Daniel Ricciardo could have finished 6th

Following a poor qualification, Daniel Ricciardo started in 13th position, but quickly felt comfortable in the early laps of the Styrian Grand Prix. The Australian took advantage of race incidents and daring overtakes to quickly move up to the points zone, in 9th place.

However, the McLaren driver fell victim to a power issue on the 7th lap, causing him to lose valuable time as well as the positions he had gained in the early moments of the race: “The start was great, we climbed to ninth place, we positioned ourselves very well on the medium tire and the race was improving from there, then we lost power. We were able to fix it on the steering wheel, but everything we gained, we then lost and returned to square one. After that, it was difficult to overtake because of the dirty air. I think we should have been fifth and sixth again today like we were last week. We will work over the next few days and come back again to make it happen next week – hopefully our luck changes,” said Daniel Ricciardo.

The Honey Badger finally finished in 13th position and considers the Styrian Grand Prix as one of the days when he does not like this sport: “We are in front of [Carlos] Sainz on the same strategy, and he finished sixth. I think that should have been our position. We could have been fifth and sixth again as a team. In sports, when things don’t go well, they really don’t go well. It was one of those days when I really didn’t like it.”

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has apologized to Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, who had got off to a very strong start in the race and could have continued his momentum from the French Grand Prix: « We always end the weekend with mixed feelings because today was a missed opportunity. Daniel had a great start from P13 to P9 initially, but a temporary loss of power resulted in four cars overtaking him, effectively ending his race. Daniel, sorry about that.