Beginning the Turkish Grand Prix in P5, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo loved among the finest launches of any driver off the road at Istanbul. Too good, in reality, with the Australian admitting after the race that his sensible getaway had contributed to him colliding together with his crew mate Esteban Ocon in Flip 1.
Each Renaults, in reality, enjoyed strong starts from the grippier right side of the grid, Ricciardo so fast off the road that he discovered his approach blocked by the Racing Level of Sergio Perez and the recovering Crimson Bull of Max Verstappen.
With Ricciardo previous Verstappen however ultimately pressured to let Perez go, he then discovered himself in a Lewis Hamilton/Esteban Ocon sandwich, with Hamilton attacking up the within into Flip 1, as Ocon tried to cross across the outdoors – with Ricciardo jinking his steering wheel to keep away from contact with Hamilton and tapping Ocon right into a spin.
“The primary 500 metres – it led to catastrophe, however I might say the primary 100, I used to be like ‘wow’,” mentioned Ricciardo. “I had a extremely good launch, however then I had nowhere to go, as a result of from reminiscence, I believe Max was attempting to get into the higher line, after which Perez was catching him and I used to be catching Perez, so I needed to raise, so I misplaced my momentum there. So the beginning was too good!
“After which all I keep in mind is Esteban on the skin, and I believed I used to be okay, however then I noticed Lewis come on the within… I don’t know if Lewis received into me, but it surely was inevitable I used to be going to hit Esteban, so I hit him, he spun, so we misplaced a few positions there.
“Whether or not it’s a racing incident or not, nonetheless it’s clearly the worst state of affairs when you and your crew mate collide. I apologised to the crew, however then we clearly needed to try to get on with it.”
WATCH: ‘We had a high 5 automotive’ says Esteban Ocon after ‘unlucky’ Turkish GP
Ricciardo initially received on with it effectively, ultimately slotting again into seventh place and spending a lot of the race heading a prepare of automobiles together with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. However with Leclerc and Sainz ending the race fourth and fifth, as Ricciardo got here dwelling tenth – having been handed 10 laps from the tip by the second McLaren of Lando Norris – the Australian admitted that an initially promising Turkish Grand Prix had was a “struggle for survival”.
“I keep in mind Karel, my engineer, got here on the radio and mentioned, ‘Your tempo is sweet, you’re one of many quickest on monitor.’ And about two laps later, my entrance tyre was useless,” mentioned Ricciardo. “After which the race simply went downhill for us… So only a actual struggle for survival on the finish.
2020 Turkish Grand Prix: Ricciardo spins whereas defending from Norris
“There have been some transient moments of some constructive indicators, however total we didn’t actually have one right now. You wish to try to dissect and perceive it, however a part of me as effectively is like, we’re by no means going to come back right here once more with the monitor so shiny and so recent in these situations; we might by no means race in these circumstances ever once more, however for certain there’s one thing nonetheless to be most likely be learnt.”
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Ricciardo’s solitary level, as Ocon ultimately got here dwelling eleventh, noticed Renault lose ground in the fight for P3 within the constructors’ championship, with Racing Level and McLaren each demoting Renault from third to fifth, with the Anglo-French crew now 18 factors adrift of that P3 spot with three races to run this season.
