Ricciardo expected a Bahrain GP win

F1 Update: DANIEL Ricciardo and Max Verstappen both found plenty of positives in a Bahrain GP which ultimately came down to a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel is back on top of the Formula One standings and his Ferrari team is bursting with ambition again.

But Ricciardo liked what he saw from his car in the early going before fading to finish fifth. “It was a race of two halves really,” the Australian said. “At the beginning I genuinely thought we had a chance to win.

“That stint was looking very competitive and I could see Valtteri (Bottas, who started from pole) was struggling.

“I was at the tail end of the front pack and I could see everyone else in front of me — they were sliding and looked like they were struggling more.

“It was easy for me to stay there and I was looking after my tyres, so at that point I was thinking it could be on today, not only for a podium but for a win.

“The safety car worked for me in that we jumped up to third but it wasn’t so good for our tyres and that’s where we lost a lot of ground.

“Even once we settled into a pace and the chaos settled we fell back and I was struggling with grip at the front and rear. We never really got that (soft) tyre working for us today.”

Ricciardo is in sixth position in the standings, three points behind teammate Verstappen, who failed to add to his total after a brake failure saw him crash out on lap 12.

But the young gun was also looking on the bright side after the race. “I could keep up with the leaders, the car was performing really well and the pace was good,” Verstappen said.

“We made the right call with the pit stop to try and undercut the two Mercedes but then the rear brakes failed on lap 12 and it was over.

“There are definitely positives to take away from today — the car was working a lot better there than the past two races so it’s just an unfortunate ending as we could have scored some really good points.”

Category: Formula One