Daniel Ricciardo was forced to retire from the Russian Grand Prix with just four laps remaining.
The Red Bull Racing driver had been running sixth before the suspected suspension failure caused him to stop the car on the inside of the circuit at turn seven. After the race, Ricciardo described his retirement in Sochi: “We’re not sure what happened, we suspect it’s a suspension issue. The team will investigate the issue.”
Ricciardo pitted early in the race during the second safety car period as the team gambled on a long second stint to try gain positions in the top 10: “The risky strategy was working well and we were looking good to earn some decent points.”
The Australian did fantastically well to hold off a charging Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen until Bottas was allowed to turn up his Mercedes power unit to get past the Red Bull in the closing stages. Overall, Ricciardo was satisfied with the day despite retiring late on: “I’m happy with how I drove, but it’s a shame we don’t have any points to show for it … but I think considering we weren’t expecting too much from this track, we can be pleased that we were racing with the faster cars of Williams and Ferrari and managed to keep them behind us for a good while.”
