Daniel Ricciardo played "team game" after falling out of Dutch Grand Prix contention
Daniel Ricciardo has revealed mechanical problems meant he was lucky to start the Dutch Grand Prix, ultimately finishing out of the points in eleventh.
Teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen before the Dutch Grand Prix. (McLaren)
"Difficult race," said Ricciardo.
The Australian started in tenth before falling deep into the field after his issue at the start.
"Coming up to the line, I went to pull the clutch and it wasn’t working, so my preferred clutch paddle had an issue."
"I did the start with my other hand and that was a big part of losing a position to Russell off the line."
"But we recovered well and I got back past Russell and Giovinazzi."
"We actually gained a position on lap one when I thought we were going to lose a few, so that was great."
Although Ricciardo recovered the track position, he says his McLaren then lacked the pace to stay competitive.
"We were then just stuck behind the Alpines."
"They were saving the tyres and I was just trying to stay with them."
"Once they opened it up, I didn’t have their pace."
Ricciardo got into the Dutch spirit ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix. (Motorsport Images/McLaren)
With both drivers struggling for race pace, McLaren moved to a team strategy - which compromised his race even further.
"We put the Hard tyre on and were trying to get into a bit of a rhythm."
"We also tried to execute a team strategy to maximise points, which cost me some race time."
"It was hard to get going after that and I think ultimately the pace wasn’t that good."
"We did struggle a bit, for different reasons, in the first and second stint."
"We were P10 at one point today, but it was hard to see how we could’ve been much higher than that."
"I'd have obviously loved to score points, but we’ll analyse it and learn from it."
Ricciardo scored his best result of the season behind the red flag at Spa, where he was only awarded half-points.
"Next up, Monza! Give me some pizza!”
Lando Norris arrives at the Dutch Grand Prix on bike. (McLaren)
McLaren is optimistic that a high-speed track like Monza will allow better results for the team.
"Thanks to Daniel for playing the team game today to try to maximise our points," said Team Principal Andreas Seidl, "but unfortunately it didn’t pay off this time."
"Thanks, in fact, to the whole team at the track and back at the factory, plus our colleagues from HPP, for their hard work."
Teammate Lando Norris finished tenth, losing third spot in the drivers' standings to Valtteri Bottas.
"I think that’s the best we could've done today," he said.
"Maybe if we'd started in a better position and did a better job yesterday, we could've achieved a little bit more – so we need to look at how we can learn from it."
