Both Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, finished the British Grand Prix satisfied they achieved their best possible results at Silverstone on Sunday.
The two men started in very different parts of the grid, with the Dutchman fourth while teammate Daniel Ricciardo had to start from the back row hitting problems in qualifying.
Verstappen would make the most of a bad start for Sebastian Vettel to take third on the opening lap, then would fall back after being undercut by the Ferrari and simply out-paced by a recovering Valtteri Bottas to run fifth, meanwhile his teammate orchestrated a mega comeback to gain 13 positions up to sixth entering the final few laps.
Then came a final twist as the puncture for Vettel promoted both drivers to eventual fourth and fifth place finishes.
What made the Australian’s climb through the field better was he had a small moment running wide at Luffield on the Safety Car restart lap, dropping him back down the 18th, having climbed up to 11th before picking off cars one at a time into Stowe, Brooklands and even Copse in the case of Kevin Magnussen.
“I would suspect that the floor had a bit of damage after my off, but I think in the end fifth was the maximum,” commented Riccardo after the race.
“Even without that… sure I would have finished a long way up, in terms of race time, but I think I wouldn’t have got close to the other guys.
“It was a crazy race, I went through the field, so that was fun – I just had a battle the whole time.”
His performance would even be enough to beat home hero Lewis Hamilton to the ‘Driver of the Day’ award.
“I know the fans are super stoked that Lewis won, but he led from start to finish, so you’ve got to take some TV time away from him!” he gleamed.
As for Verstappen, even though fourth place meant his first points since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, the inability to compete with those around him was frustrating.
“You have to be realistic – we were just not fast enough for the podium on pace,” said Verstappen. “I think this was the best we could do.
“I got lucky with Seb’s puncture, so this is OK. And I finished the race as well.”
Verstappen could have benefited from Raikkonen’s issue had he not also pitted three laps from the end, explaining w he admitted it was in response to the problem for the Finn.
“You never really know, I just started locking a lot the inside-front wheel, the left front. Just to be sure, we pitted,” he said.
“All the fast corners are to the right, so it’s quite normal you start wearing the left-front. We pitted quite early, so at one point you start to struggle as the rubber comes off and there’s a bigger risk of punctures, of course.
“It is a positive day,” he added in conclusion. “I think in the race we looked a little bit better than in qualifying, we just need to understand why we were struggling that much. I’m happy to finish and fourth is not too bad.”
