Daniel Ricciardo was left heart broken on Sunday evening in Monaco as he finished second to Lewis Hamilton, losing a victory that almost certainly should have been his, had it not been for a pit stop blunder by his Red Bull team.
The Australian led from pole position and opened up a comfortable lead to Hamilton. However a clever tyre strategy for the Mercedes driver meant the pair emerged almost side-by-side on track before a costly pit stop error dropped Ricciardo behind Hamilton. Had it not been for that, he would almost certainly have emerged in the lead.
Immediately after the race, Ricciardo said he felt as though the team had "screwed" him twice in a row, after he failed to win in Spain due to a slower strategy, whilst team-mate Max Verstappen went on to win the race, despite starting behind.
"I think I took Barcelona on the chin and took it well but two in a row now, and it's not like we're in Mercedes' position, we're not able to win every race, so to have an opportunity to lead two races in a row [it's painful] and especially here in Monaco."
Ricciardo felt he had done everything he needed to do to win in Monaco, but a second error by the team costing him a second victory, has left him feeling downbeat and unsure of how to get over the defeat.
"I put it on the front [pole position] and you wake up and you see thunderstorms and it's like, OK, there's a few curve balls coming my way but I felt I dealt with them as well as I could have and had the pace in the wet at the beginning and again I thought I was controlling everything I had to.
"Obviously a big part of it is relying on the team and the strategy but yeah, to get it wrong twice now it definitely hurts. I'm not sure where to go from here, what to do.
"Obviously they've got to understand what's going on and learn from it but this win I'll never get back, that's a fact."
TEAM APOLOGY
Team principal Christian Horner took the opportunity to apologise to Ricciardo, admitting they failed to "support him" in the way he deserved during the race.
"A very disappointing day," said Horner. "We as a team owe Daniel a huge apology today as we failed to support him in the way we did to get him to his first pole position yesterday.
"The delay at his pit stop cost him the lead and despite some excellent driving to get close to Lewis, he couldn’t get past, as is so often the case here in Monaco.
"We will review and re-group and all of the team will be aiming to continue our strong form in Canada."
