Daniel Ricciardo admits he did not enjoy a faultless performance at the Russian Grand Prix, stating he was unhappy with himself on a number of occasions throughout the race.
Ricciardo crossed the finish line in fifth place, taking his fourth consecutive top six result.
However, he was handed a five-second time penalty during the grand prix after he failed to follow the re-join procedure outlined in the race director’s notes at Turn 2.
The Australian managed to pull a sizeable gap to sixth placed Charles Leclerc towards the end of the race and held onto his position.
“I’m happy with the outcome,” Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1. “There were moments of the race where I was certainly upset with myself, there were a few errors on my part.
“I didn’t let it get to me, that was important. I knew I made some mistakes but I felt like I quickly snapped out of it and actually recovered well.
“I’ll admit I wasn’t perfect today, for sure, but overall still happy with the result.”
Ricciardo’s penalty came as a result of a semi-botched overtake on team-mate Esteban Ocon, who conceded his position to give Renault the best chance of a strong result.
The former Red Bull driver took the blame for the incident, stating: “I just locked up. It was pretty simple from my side, as soon as I hit the brakes I was like ‘Oh no…’.”
Ricciardo added he had little chance of making it through the bollard chicane that drivers used all weekend as he was busy attempting to control the car.
“It’s one of those ones, I think from the outside it’s easy, you’re like ‘oh just quickly go through the cut-through’.
“But I was hanging on until the very end and to be honest, also in the car you don’t see exactly the kerb and the end of it.
“Visibility is not perfect so I knew I was likely over but I said I would try and hang onto it if I can.
“Obviously I didn’t, but probably made me push a little harder at the end, so made a race for myself.”
