Daniel Ricciardo admitted that he was very lucky not to get taken out in the first corner of the Singapore Grand Prix, and that he was then able to finish the the race despite oil pressure issues.
“It was probably a good thing that I got a bad start. Otherwise I would probably have got caught up in it,” the Red Bull driver said after clinching second place.
His team mate Max Verstappen was involved in a three-way collision with the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Ricciardo was careful to avoid apportioning any blame for the incident.
“I just kind of watched the chaos unfold in front of me,” he added. “It just looked like three were trying to go into one. I don’t know whose fault it was, but it was just too close.”
After the opening lap chaos, Ricciardo found himself running in second place behind race leader Lewis Hamilton.
“The rain made it all pretty hectic today. Everyone was in the same boat though and we hadn’t driven in the wet here before.
“My start was quite slow off the line,” he continued. “Then in the first few laps I felt we were okay in the wet. But then I felt we were a bit harsh on the tyres.
“Even when we pitted and had fresher tyres, we couldn’t really make an impact on Lewis.”
Unbeknown to the fans watching from the grandstands at the time, Ricciardo was also battling technical problems with the RB13. The team later confirmed that his car was losing oil pressure and might not even make it to half race distance.
- Hamilton wins Singapore Grand Prix after Ferrari disaster
“After the re-start,Daniel started to lose an awful lot of gearbox oil,” said team boss Christian Horner. “[That] created a lot of problems with oil pressure.
“We were feeling that it was looking unlikely that Daniel would get to the end of the race. However he managed to nurse the gearbox of the car incredibly well for three-quarters of the Grand Prix.”
Ricciardo took up the story: “The team was asking me to manage the gears through the race,” he explained. “We had a leak and were losing oil pressure in the gearbox from early on.”
In the end, the issues meant that Ricciardo was unable to push Hamilton for victory and had to settle for second place. It’s the fourth time in ten years he’s been on the podium in Singapore, but he’s yet to win.
“I can’t win the bloody thing! I’m trying, I’m trying,” he told the crowd after the race.
“Today we didn’t have that probably Friday pace we showed in practice to have the pace on Mercedes, so a little disappointed obviously to miss out.
“Of course I came here to win and really wanted it,” he added. “But second place is great and I’m not going to complain about it.”
And Ricciardo certainly wasn’t lacking in support at Marina Bay Street Circuit. Judging from the noise made by the crowd at Marina Bay, the Australian driver was definitely the local hero of the day.
“I think there’s more Aussies here than last year, and there was more than the year before. Thanks a lot!”
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