Daniel Ricciardo says the Virtual Safety Car cost him a potential second place finish at the United States Grand Prix.
The Australian lined up in third place but moved up to second place on the opening lap, having started on the super-soft tyre.
He was on an alternative strategy to the Mercedes drivers but felt he was on course for second, before the deployment of the VSC to clear his team-mate Max Verstappen’s car.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg pitted, effectively picking up a free tyre change, and eventually went on to score a 1-2 finish.
Ricciardo was pleased with third but felt the VSC didn’t work in his favour and cost him a better result.
“In the beginning of the race the super-soft tyres helped me but the actual start I felt wasn’t really that much better than the Mercedes,” he said.
“Then I saw Nico going to the outside so it gave me an opportunity on the inside. Obviously I would have loved to have led out of Turn 1 but second was good enough.
“I tried to stay with Lewis the first couple of laps but then his soft tyres were able to go a bit better. I think we were looking good for P2 but then the Virtual Safety Car didn’t work in our favour today.
“I’m not going to be too disappointed, it’s just cool to be on the podium here. It’s another big bag of points and we at least had Nico’s pace so that’s encouraging and we’ll try and do what we can in the next few days.
“Obviously Max and Kimi had their misfortunes today so it was just me and Seb out there, but we still gained a little bit on Ferrari so we’re looking good. We’ll try and keep going like this and get on the podiums for the last few races.”
