Daniel Ricciardo was left lamenting the timing of the Virtual Safety Car during Sunday's United States Grand Prix, which he says ruined the closing stages of the race.
Ricciardo jumped Nico Rosberg on the opening lap but ultimately had to settle for third place at the Circuit of the Americas after the Red Bull driver lost out when the VSC was deployed around half-distance following Max Verstappen's retirement. The Australian believes he lost around 10 seconds to Rosberg, who took advantage of making what was effectively a 'free' pitstop under the VSC.
"[Under the] Virtual Safety Car we lost I think 10 seconds it worked out to be with Nico," Ricciardo said. "I believe after the pit stops we would have had about five seconds on him and after the Virtual Safety Car he had closed to five seconds on me. So that was frustrating.
"It just would have been interesting, even if he caught me at the end, just to at least have a fight. I think the race after the Virtual Safety Car became a bit not that exciting. I guess without it would have made it a bit more spicy at the end. So that was that."
When asked if it made it worse that the VSC was triggered by his own teammate, Ricciardo, in a mock Texan accent, replied: "Absolutely, Sir. When I saw Max out there I thought 'Ah hell, my boy's done it again!'Anyways, that was a devestational moment, but we'll keep soldiering on and we still got some points over Ferrari today so I'm pretty pleased with that."
Despite passing Rosberg around the outside of Turn 2, Ricciardo admitted he had hoped to utilise starting on the faster super-soft tyre -- with both Mercedes drivers beginning on the soft compound -- to possibly challenge Lewis Hamilton for the lead into Turn 1.
"I think the actual launch itself didn't seem that much stronger than the Mercedes on the soft tyre. I was hoping it would go a bit better, but then Nico opted to go to the outside so I had some room on the inside there. I got one at least, I was hoping to get two but that was better than nothing.
"I think the first part of the race everyone seemed to have a pretty similar pace, I guess Lewis was probably controlling it at the front but we seemed at the stage to be able to hold onto second."