Daniel Ricciardo felt fifth position was the best he could have hoped for following an impressive comeback from the rear of the grid at the British Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver produced a series of thrilling overtaking manoeuvres to scythe his way through the field after dropping out of qualifying on Saturday due to a mechanical issue.
Ricciardo, who started from 19th, completed a longer first stint than most, electing to pit on lap 34, having driven up to sixth spot.
His charge was however dented by a trip through the Luffield gravel trap in the early laps.
The Australian rejoined the race in 10th but soon found his way by the Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in the space of one lap.
He then passed Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, before benefitting from Sebastian Vettel’s late tyre failure to snatch fifth.
“It was a crazy race, I went through the field and that was fun, just to have a battle the whole time,” said Ricciardo.
“The whole race was a fight. I made a really good restart and got two cars by Turn 4.
“I was going for three and probably got over-optimistic on the outside of Romain Grosjean, and he didn’t give me much room, but I probably shouldn’t have been there.
“I probably damaged a bit of the floor, fell back to last again, but the whole race I was pushing and got back up to fifth, it was fun, good times.
“To get fifth, I couldn’t ask for much more, I think in the end fifth was the maximum.”
The performance earned Ricciardo the Driver of the Day award as voted by the fans.
Ricciardo continues to hold fourth in the championship standings, 60 points adrift of leader Vettel.
Discussion about this post