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F1 British GP: Ricciardo: I was ready for a battle…

Daniel Ricciardo feels he could have challenged for a podium finish in the British Grand Prix had 'bad luck' with the early Virtual Safety Car period not dropped him out of contention.

The Australian held fourth initially after the wet Safety Car restart but having pitted for intermediate tyres on lap six, a VSC period on lap seven would give those that hadn't stopped the advantage when they re-emerged.

From here Ricciardo couldn't make up ground on the top three, his only action coming when he overtook Sergio Perez for fourth position and held the spot until the chequered flag.

Indeed, though Ricciardo was delighted with the result for Red Bull Racing as Max Verstappen clinched a second place finish, he feels a better finish could have been in the offing.

"I think for the team and for the points it was really good. Obviously we gained a bit on Ferrari which is nice, but for me it was lonely and a bit boring. We lost a lot of time with the Virtual Safety Car and that was just bad luck. This was out of our hands and there's nothing we could have done different.

"It just came at the wrong time for me and we lost the position to Perez and then more than ten seconds behind the leaders. Then not stopping again for the rest of the race you can't catch this much. When the pace in the front is what it is you can get a tenth here or there but not half a second per lap.

"I was ready for a battle and some action today, but unfortunately it wasn't given to me. It is what it is now and hopefully Budapest works better."

Zdroj: crash.net