As for Ricciardo, he also struggled off the line – and he isn’t quite sure what is going on when the lights go out. Dropping those two positions proved crucial, as he became marred in a DRS queue for much of the race.
Although with some faster cars recovering from poor qualifying sessions such as the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, points were always going to be tricky in a race where there was only one retiree.
“From my side, nothing felt like it went wrong [at the start], you kind of know if you bodge it from the way you drop the clutch, you’ve got a pretty good idea when it’s your fault,” the Australian said afterwards.
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“I didn’t feel like anything went wrong so yeah, let’s wait and see but as a team we have to figure it out. We just lack consistency there and it immediately drops you out of the points.”
Ricciardo is still yet to score in a Grand Prix proper, but he does at least have some points on the board from his Miami Sprint result, where he picked up five points. That puts him in P14 in the drivers’ championship, narrowly behind the driver that is proving to be RB’s main rival this season – Hulkenberg in the Haas.
