Daniel Ricciardo insists he is not disappointed despite missing out on victory in the Singapore Grand Prix by the finest of margins.
Ricciardo identified the start as his best opportunity to overhaul pole-sitter Nico Rosberg but was forced to slot into second place behind the German and remained around five seconds adrift for much of the race.
Red Bull, though, opted to the roll the dice late on by bringing the Aussie into the pits for a set of the faster supersoft tyres, he was able to rapidly reel in the Mercedes driver but just couldn’t catch him fast enough in an enthralling climax at Marina Bay.
The gap separating them as Rosberg crossed the line was just four tenths of a second, with a 2016 victory continuing to prove elusive for Ricciardo after he was cruelly denied in Monaco.
After the race, the 27-year old stressed that he was still happy to finish on the podium and admitted his tyres were running out of grip in the dying stages.
“We’ve come very close this year on numerous occasions, but I’m not going to stand up here and be disappointed,” Ricciardo said on the podium.
“I think we gave it a good shot. We tried something at the end with the different strategy and got within half a second. It was close. Hey, we’re up here again, it feels great.
“As soon as we did the pit stop, we thought Nico was going to come in. I pushed really hard on those tyres. By the end, they were a little bit dead, but it made it exciting.”
Ricciardo has not stood on the top step since the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, but he has managed to rack up five podiums this year.
