Daniel Ricciardo was happy after learning he “annoyed some people” with his moves at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Australian once again started 13th after a tricky qualifying but had another strong start to run P5 once those who started on soft tyres had all pitted.
From there, it was more about defence but both Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz were able to get ahead in the closing laps, with Ricciardo falling just four-tenths outside the 10-second window to jump Perez after his penalties.
“I don’t want to be too extreme and be the guy that when everything goes well you’re super-cool and nice and when it doesn’t, you hate everybody. I’m trying to stay a little more level,” the McLaren driver assessed.
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“I enjoyed the race, I think that was important. I had fun and it sounds so basic but sometimes it’s the most important – you just want to be enjoying it out there and obviously, when you don’t have good days or successful days it is hard to enjoy it.
“So just having a day like today and having some battles and just keeping a race with a lot of pressure, I think that kept me occupied and meant I enjoyed it more.
“I had some good battles and apparently annoyed some people!” he added, though didn’t reveal who. “That actually makes me very happy.”
The frustrating part for Ricciardo is, while he had a better day, it was still far, far away from teammate Lando Norris, who outqualified both Mercedes on Saturday and was unfortunate to finish third just two seconds behind Valtteri Bottas.
And the 32-year-old acknowledged that he expected more from the first tripleheader of the season, particularly after a strong race in France.
“There is still certainly some speed to find,” he conceded.
“Last week I could’ve been sixth or seventh, so I would say looking at that it would have been some good points.
“But after Paul Ricard, I was expecting to make more of a step in these two races. It was not really the case so I still have things to learn. Austria’s nice. I enjoy it.”