- US GP - Race
Strategy key to podium - Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo was full of praises for Red Bull's strategy after he recovered from a poor start to claim the final spot on the United States Grand Prix podium.
Ricciardo had a slow getaway from fifth but, after dispatching Fernando Alonso early on, set about reeling in the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. Williams was unable to shake Ricciardo and he managed to undercut Bottas and then Massa at respective pit stops, with his pace enough to keep the Mercedes-powered cars at bay until the end.
"There's not much to say about the start, except that I feel it was my fault today," Ricciardo said. "However, we had good pace and, although the Williams were strong, we used very good strategy to get ahead of them and that paid off. It seemed the longer the stint went on, the more pace we had and I'm really happy with third. I think the Mercedes were a bit out of reach, so third is the best we could get today."
With Williams the fastest car through the speed trap, Ricciardo found it difficult to shake Massa in the final stages, especially on the long back straight leading down to Turn 12, and he admits the Brazilian gave him no quarter until the chequered flag.
"Felipe was coming, and coming on strong, at the end. He came back stronger than I expected - I don't know if he had DRS, but I was driving to the limit down the straights so he couldn't get too much into my tow. I think we had him covered pretty comfortably at the end, but he had good pace and kept me honest to the last lap."
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