Daniel Ricciardo was happy to score his first podium of the 2017 season, in what he described as a ‘lonely’ race after finishing over a minute behind the leaders.
After managing to keep out of trouble at the start with his rivals colliding in front of him, the Red Bull driver was keen to maintain his composure to secure a solid finish.
Ricciardo said: “I’m happy to be back on the podium today, it’s the first one of the season for me which is nice but actually the race was quite a lonely one.
“I didn’t have any real battles and my race was more about trying to keep a rhythm and maintain concentration.
“I got a bit fortunate with Valtteri’s problem towards the end of the race which bumped me up to third, but of course I’m still happy to be up there again and see all the smiles from the team.
“Today we will enjoy the podium but tomorrow we need to understand how to further close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes.”
With a raft of new updates being on the RB13, there was hope within the team that they may have closed the gap to the pace-setting Mercedes and Ferrari, however, Ricciardo vows to keep pushing even if takes longer than expected to haul in the leaders.
“I don’t think it’s impossible to catch the leaders at some point, maybe it will take a little longer than we had hoped but we will get there,” the Australian added.
“I think I got the maximum out of the car today and moving on to Monaco we will have a few more updates, which will hopefully give us another step, and at that track, it’s fair to say anything can happen.”
