Ricciardo: "Knew very quickly that fourth place was the maximum"
General
Daniel Ricciardo came close to a podium during the Grand Prix of Belgium. The Renault driver started in fourth place and in the first lap he almost overtook Max Verstappen. In the end the Australian had to settle for fourth place, but he tells Sky Sports he is satisfied with today.
"We had a lot of speed today. We had some bad luck with Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez's strategy, which we had to overtake again after the pit stop and that created a reasonable gap between me and Max," Ricciardo explains. "I really think that fourth place was the maximum, I knew that when I caught up with Gasly."
No sense in crashing with Verstappen
"Behind me the tyres overheated and it took several laps before they were able to perform optimally again." In the first lap Ricciardo had a chance to pass Verstappen but he chose to stay behind the Dutchman. "I didn't feel like falling out with a crash in the first lap," Ricciardo concludes.
At Ziggo Sport the driver from Perth continued: "If I would have been ahead of him at the start we probably wouldn't have lasted long. I did take some risk, but there is no point in ruining your race there. It was a great duel," he says about his fight with Verstappen on the first lap.