Ricciardo frustrated after ‘boring’ British GP

Daniel Ricciardo was left to rue an ill-timed Virtual Safety Car period which led to a ‘boring’ run to fourth at the British Grand Prix.

The Australian endured a lonely race at Silverstone as the Red Bull driver was cut adrift from the front runners in the early stages.

Ricciardo, who started fourth, lost track position when he was the first of the lead group to pit to intermediate tyres.

The Red Bull driver’s hope of an undercut on a drying track was immediately negated when Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Max Vertsappen pitted under a Virtual Safety Car period a lap later.

The VSC was caused by a spin for Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein.

The 27-year-old, who fought back to finish fourth, believes he lost 10 seconds to the leaders as a result, which he was unable to recover.

Riccardo finished behind team-mate Verstappen for the second consecutive race as the Dutchman claimed third.

“I thought that was boring. We just got a bit unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car and lost the gap to the leaders, and that put me in a race by myself,” said Ricciardo.

“(Sergio) Perez was in front for a little bit but we knew once we had cleared him we were just hoping for something to happen up front.

“I’m definitely over these fourth place finishes. It was unfortunate that there wasn’t much happening in the race.

“We just got unlucky with the Virtual Safety car, it came at the wrong time and we lost 10 seconds.”

Ricciardo stands by the timing of the team’s decision to pit for intermediates, admitting the Virtual Safety Car period was unfortunate and difficult to predict.

“I don’t think we made the wrong decision. We just got unlucky. At the time it all seemed ok,” he added.

“I wanted some action today. I was ready to have fight but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”