Daniel Ricciardo was left unhappy after a lunge by Lance Stroll cost him two places late on in the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Australian made the alternate strategy work for him in the first part of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, starting on mediums and moving up to fifth after Carlos Sainz had a disastrous pit-stop.
However, as the Racing Points recovered from a poor qualifying in the wet, first Sergio Perez got past and then a lengthy period of defence against Stroll was undone as the Canadian barged through at Turn 3.
“The end of the race was frustrating, I was struggling to hold on to the position on the last couple of laps,” Ricciardo explained.
“On the incident, he forced both of us off the track. I will always be critical of myself, I should have closed the door but I don’t think he was ever making the move so I think it was desperate.
Las últimas dos vueltas de Norris. Aprovechando del lío entre Stroll y Ricciardo y luego de Pérez sin el alerón delantero para acabar 5º. #StyrianGP
Vídeo de @F1 pic.twitter.com/ylBXT4QdNH— Stefania Bruera (@stefifm) July 12, 2020
“Lando [Norris] was coming and I think he had to do something or Lando was going to eat him up. [If] I take the apex, we crash. Just a frustrating end.
“Obviously, we lost the position to Lando. I think we will get the one back on Stroll, but it’s a bit of a shame to end the race like that.”
That hope for a penalty though was unfounded as the stewards ruled it a racing incident and instead, the Renault driver has to settle for eighth.
“We certainly hoped for more today,” said Ricciardo. “I had a good start and made some decent progress up the order.
“The mediums felt good on our first stint, but when we put the soft on it wasn’t as quick as we’d hoped, and it didn’t really give us as much as we’d thought.”
