Daniel Ricciardo was pleased with his eventual fourth place finish from 16th on the grid, as the Australian produced yet another excellent recovery drive at the Italian Grand Prix.
Following his fifth place from 19th on the grid at Silverstone two month ago, the Red Bull driver produced another complete performance showing his well-known overtaking abilities and combined it with excellent pace as he was able to split the two Ferraris.
Using an alternative strategy of starting on the Soft compound tyres, he would run as high as third for a brief spell as others pitted and he made his way through, such was his speed he was a legitimate threat to Sebastian Vettel for the final podium place, but just ran out of laps finishing four seconds behind his former teammate.
“Yeah, we were closing down on the podium. At one stage we were catching Seb about a second a lap, 1.1 and at that rate, we would have caught him by the last lap,” he explained. “But I think he then was able to turn it up a bit, and I was using every bit of my tyre I could.
“It was fun. Definitely had some really good overtakes. A little bit like the race in 2014, we came through the pack, did some good highlights for the year, hopefully, a few more.”
Commenting on the decision to use a contrary strategy to most around him, Ricciardo admitted some concerns in the early laps but eventually, it all came together.
“It went better than I thought,” he said talking about the long stint on the Softs. “To be honest, the first few laps, I think there was a little bit of contact in the first chicane, second chicane as well. I guess being in heavy traffic as well, but the tyres were feeling quite gooey.
“I didn’t feel like I could get much out of them, but once we cleared a few guys and got clear air, we had some good pace. That was enough to overcut Ocon and those guys and the team got the quickest pit stop, so thanks to them and then gave us a charge at the end.”
The highlight was a bold, late move on Kimi Raikkonen for fourth into the first chicane as he used the extra grip of the Supersoft tyre.
“I’ll give him (Raikkonen) the credit and say he raced clean and fair but I would have done it on anyone, to be honest,” Ricciardo admitted.
Though it was likely he would have had the pace to pass regardless, the Baku race winner claimed his decision to strike from a long way back was about seizing the initiative.
“I think especially when you’re coming through the field and you’ve got all of that momentum, it doesn’t really matter who you’re coming up against. I was aware the deeper I got towards the front, the harder the overtakes would be because they’re normally going quicker,” he said.
“The speed difference is normally not as much. In the end, I had blinkers on for the move, and I was happy to pull it off.”
