Pressiteade
Daniel took thechequered flag just 2.3seconds away from third place after a pulsating 59-laprace in Italy, which ran just short of two and a half hours with a flurry ofincidents meaning the race had to restart twice.
Both drivershad made strong and, importantly, clean starts with Daniel holding sixth andEsteban tenth at the end of the first lap. An initial Safety Car period led toa frantic restart with both drivers again staying free from trouble after amulti-car collision, which subsequently led to the first red flag.
Esteban’s carwas identified to have a brake issue and was retired prior to the grid formatrestart with Daniel continuing his way up the order. A smart and well-executed2.7second pit-stop for Mediums on lap 27 hoisted Daniel into third place as therace headed for an intriguing finale with a handful of cars sniffing for thefinal podium spot.
But a secondSafety Car, which was upgraded to a red flag, meant the field was once againbunched together for the grid restart. Daniel, on Softs, was the quickest carto 200km/h, and that lightning start put him into second place.
Despite aheroic effort, the Australian couldn’t hold on, relinquishing second place alap later and third with nine laps to go, crossing the line in fourth for thethird time this season.
Daniel Ricciardo, started P8, finished P4:
“I’m really happy with today’s race and we’re so closeto the podium again. It was a long day, a long race with the stoppages andincidents, but the main thing is that all the drivers are okay. It looked likewe were on for third towards the end of the race, so it’s a shame to come soclose. We can’t get any closer than that and we’ll keep pushing. Our startswere good, we got Valtteri [Bottas], but he and Alex [Albon] were just tooquick to hold on. It hurts not to be on the podium after that, but fourth isstill a big result today.”
EstebanOcon, started P10, DNF:
“We had a brakeoverheating issue, which is why we had to retire today. Under the Safety Car,the rear brakes were on fire, which caused damage to the rear of the car andthe brake line and we couldn’t put the car back together during the red flag.We were in a good position at the start, but I had to go around, Carlos [Sainz]and I lost a couple of positions there. I felt we had the pace for solidpoints. It looked a cool race to be in with lots going on. It’s getting prettycrazy this year, which is interesting and there are more opportunities for bigresults.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:
“After a rollercoaster ofemotions since Friday, it’s good to be disappointed with fourth! We havebelieved in that podium for a while and the team probably deserved it, but AlexAlbon had better pace at the last restart with the Red Bull. It was a veryeventful race, but I believe we did all the right things. Daniel drove a greatrace to finish where he did. The only regret is that we had only one car inthis brilliant race as Esteban had to retire due to a brake overheatingproblem; the root cause of which will have to be investigated. The maintakeaway from this weekend is that we should never take anything for granted.We came here expecting a very difficult weekend with track characteristics thatusually do not suit our car, but we still managed to make it work. It’s anotherindication that we can extract more while the factories develop futureimprovements. It’s also been a fantastic first event at Mugello, a great trackfor the drivers and their machines!”
