Daniel Ricciardo says he was “driving on a knife-edge” at the Spanish Grand Prix and that a spin was behind some of his time loss, as he came home in fifth.
Ricciardo, having run wide through the Turn 9 gravel early on, gradually drifted away from Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen, but dropped a sizeable amount of time during the Virtual Safety Car period.
Results: Spanish GP race results in full | Drivers' Standings | Constructors' Standings
Ricciardo later revealed that he spun (pictured) through Turn 10, commenting: “I actually had a spin on the restart so yeah, I was struggling to keep these tyres warm.
“Fortunately there was no walls like [Romain] Grosjean found in Baku but obviously, yeah, it just put me in no man’s land. Signs of good pace but a pretty boring race.”
Expanding on his performance, Ricciardo said: “It was just a bit tricky to drive so..
“It was fast when you were able to put it all together but it wasn’t easy, it was easy to make mistakes.
“It was a bit driving on a knife edge. [I] felt like if you got lucky you could put in a blistering lap but yeah, probably one out of five I could make it happen and the four other laps I was sliding and yeah, struggling to stay on.
“Just fast but not with the ease to be able to do it for consistent laps for the whole race.”
Team-mate Verstappen rounded out the podium places, behind the Mercedes drivers.
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