While Rosberg has 106 points, Hamilton has jumped up to 82 after his latest win. When the safety vehicle finally left the track, it was Ricciardo who started from pole who stormed away from the two Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Hamilton.
Advertisement
The normally optimistic and affable driver was left dejected after his Red Bull team cost him a potential victory for the second straight race at the Monaco GP. The delay left the Australian behind Hamilton’s Mercedes on a track where it’s more or less impossible to pass. Ricciardo continued to chase down Hamilton but it would be to no avail.
I think this will be a boost for my mechanics, who have been nervous all year.
With Rosberg ultimately falling to seventh while Hamilton won, the gap between them in the drivers’ championship came down from 43 to 24 points.
While team-mate Verstappen, the previous race victor, would go on to crash three times over the Monaco weekend, Ricciardo flirted with the barriers in a wonderful flourishing tango.
It followed a unsuccessful team strategy at the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight earlier. This victory in Monaco must be a great relief for them and I am grateful for them for sticking through it, sticking with me.
Despite the Red Bulls-up Ricciardo must leave Monaco knowing his was the quickest man all weekend. “They should have been ready”.
“I was conscious neither of us would win the race [at that pace], which is why I was able to drive by”.
Daniel Ricciardo’s customary smile is gone.
But Hamilton held his line at the Mirabeau turn, prompting an angry reaction from Ricciardo, who waved his right hand furiously.
“It’s not something that I’ve been thinking about, it’s not really at the top of my mind”, he said.
Despite his retirement Verstappen still sits sixth in the 2016 drivers’ standings, sandwiched between Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’ Felipe Massa.
No longer fuming, Ricciardo now suggests that he found not winning in Barcelona and Monaco so hard to cope with because he feels he deserves better results from his F1 career so far. Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen also spun out of the race, whilst Daniil Kvyat retired after a collision.
Advertisement
Sauber teammates Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson collided amid some confusion over team orders.
