Daniel Ricciardo: “The incident in the first lap was as painful as it gets”

Daniel Ricciardo says the opening fight with Valtteri Bottas was “as painful as it gets” as it gets its chances of getting points in the Mexico City Grand Prix were as good as over.

Ricciardo tried an inward pass from both of them Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly into the first corner, but he misjudged the movement a little and made contact with Bottas, turned around Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team Driver and breaks his own front wing.

the McLaren F1 team The driver was in the back of the field for most of the race as overtaking around the track proved extremely difficult Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with Ricciardo finished the day in twelfth place, but he didn’t regret trying to pass the first corner.

“The incident on the first lap was as painful as it gets because your race is as good as over from the start,” said Ricciardo. “I was in a difficult position because I know someone else would have done it if I hadn’t and I would probably have been inundated with other cars. At the end of the day, I think it’s just a round one incident.

“The start was good and the first few hundred meters looked positive. I think we were possibly in P4 and in a split second that changes. That’s the nature of the beast, but these are pretty painful because you have to put up with the race and hope something happens, but nothing really did.

“I was able to defend Bottas, which is usually a good position, but we were obviously both behind. The car was also damaged and we lacked a bit of downforce. A little heartbreaking.

“It looked fantastic for a few seconds, and then it looked pretty ugly. We will try to return to Brazil. “

“We knew it would be difficult to get through the field” – Lando Norris

Teammate Lando Norris took a point on Sunday in tenth, but the Brit always knew it would be a difficult day as he started the race in eighteenth.

Norris was at the end of the pace after receiving a start penalty for an unplanned engine change and he was betting on pitting too late to make his only pit stop.

The move made sure he made headway Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN‘S Antonio Giovinazzi to secure the last point, although he would have hoped more to know the pace of the MCL35M.

“Of course not the best for us as a team, but a good day on my part, from eighteenth to tenth place,” said Norris. “We knew it would be difficult to get through the field, but we did our best today.

“I think we couldn’t have achieved much more in terms of our pace and the difficulty of overtaking and following. A point is more than nothing.

“We will continue to work hard and make some improvements in Brazil.”

Lando Norris finished tenth after starting eighteenth in Mexico – Photo credit: McLaren F1 Team