Lando Norris rued a hydraulics problem which caused him to lose three places on the final lap of the French Grand Prix.
The Briton started fifth at Paul Ricard but would lose two places early on to teammate Carlos Sainz and the recovering Sebastian Vettel.
It appeared he would hang on as Daniel Ricciardo closed in, despite the effects of his issues getting worse, but a late Virtual Safety Car would put the Australian plus Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg onto his tail for the final lap.
Finally, the attack would come at the chicane with the Renault diving around the outside, but Ricciardo would push Norris wide allowing all three drivers through.
“It wasn’t the most exciting race, pretty much the whole thing for me,” Lando admitted. “The exciting bit was obviously towards the end when I had to start defending and battling.
“But the whole of the start, middle and towards the end was just managing the tyres and making sure we stayed in position because there was nothing worth risking between Carlos and myself and destroying the tyres for no reason.
“We did what we needed to do and for Carlos, it worked out great. But something got to my car at the end which didn’t allow me to get to where we deserved to finish this weekend. I’m a bit frustrated.”
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Some recompense came as Ricciardo was given a 10-second penalty by the stewards, promoting Norris back upto ninth.
And more broadly, it was still a great weekend for McLaren who dominated the midfield and once again solidified their fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.
“I’m very happy, we could see during the race that the pace was there. Of course, it’s a shame to lose this position with Lando at the end,” team boss Andreas Seidl told Sky Sports.
“But it was a great job from him, he had some hydraulic issues in the second half of the race which affected braking, gear shifts, everything. But I’m really happy.
“We knew that it would be tight at the end of the race and the virtual safety car didn’t help because then Ricciardo had the chance to close. But again, very happy for the team back home from a track where we could carry the performance through all weekend.”