Ricciardo thought he could take over Hamilton in Monaco

Daniel Ricciardo becomes the first driver outside the team Mercedes to have won two podiums this season at the end of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Australian achieved a very good performance, beating the Ferrari de Fernando Alonso and taking advantage of the abandonment of Sebastian Vettel following a turbo problem to take a nine-point lead over his teammate. Nevertheless, the new recruit of the stable Red Bull Racing thought he could take back the Mercedes from Lewis Hamilton disturbed by vision problems.

“We don't attack for most of the race because there's a lot of time left after the first stop. We always hesitate to attack or protect our position”, recognizes Daniel Ricciardo. “I started to set better times with 15 or 20 laps to go because I knew the tires were going to start to wear out. I knew I could catch him. Knowing that it's difficult to overtake here, I just waited to see what would happen. I wasn't fighting for third place, even though that's where I ended up. »

Daniel Ricciardo has difficulty hiding his frustration even if his performance has something to satisfy him. The start of the race was complicated for the Australian who fell from third to fifth place behind Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, the Finn having to make two stops following a puncture. “Could I have done better? I don't know but I felt yesterday that we had lost a little time, but my start was not good and I fell to fifth position before Sebastian slowed down on the straights. The safety car then arrived and I tried to maintain my lead over Alonso. I later felt that it was big enough for me to attack and get closer to the Mercedes, but I could only put pressure on Lewis. »

Discover the analysis of the Monaco Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1962 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.