Failing strategy for Ricciardo

THEclash between the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix had immediately propelled the two Red Bull RB12 Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen in control of the race.

Leader during the first part of the event, the Australian however lost big with his team's choice to separate strategies, while his new teammate scored a historic victory for his first outing with the Milton Keynes team. “Switching to a three-stop strategy meant I had to overtake three cars to get back into the lead, which wasn't easy, confessed Ricciardo after the finish.

Sebastian Vettel had managed the undercut on the pit-stop. In hindsight, a three-stop strategy was not the right thing to do, but during the race it seemed like the right thing from the team's point of view. I tried to pass Vettel, I had an opportunity, but it didn't work. »

A strategic choice justified by his boss Christian Horner. “We were in a great position to get points, but fighting against the Ferrari who had a very fast car racing was going to be difficult, specifies the Briton.

We had to make some tough decisions because we didn't know which strategy, two or three stops, was going to be faster. We therefore chose to divide the strategies. We felt that both stops were going to be very fair, but Max kept the tires until the end and made no mistakes to take a very impressive victory.

Daniel recovered well with fresher tires, but unfortunately suffered a puncture. Without that I'm sure he would have been on the podium too. »

Find our full report and analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Barcelona, ​​in issue 2063 of AUTOhebdo, available from 22 p.m. this evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.