Red Bull: Verstappen scores and Ricciardo retires
Max Verstappen was the only Red Bull driver to see the finish in Sochi. He took 5th place after a lonely race. His team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, was forced to retire due to brake problems.
The race in Russia was not the most exciting for the Red Bull drivers. Daniel Ricciardo had to retire very quickly after the safety car restarted the race at the beginning of the Grand Prix.
A brake issue, similar to the one experienced by Verstappen in Bahrain, is the reason for his retirement. We need to know exactly what happened to his car. The origin seems similar to what happened with Max in Bahrain, but the failure is different. We must therefore deepen our analysis on this matter. clarified the sporting director Christian Horner after the race.
The driver, for his part, was of course disappointed not to have been able to defend his chances: « After the safety car, I looked in my mirrors to see where the Force Indias were and that’s when I saw my right rear brake was on fire. I reported it to the team and they told me to come back to the pits slowly. Unfortunately, the issue couldn’t be resolved and we had to retire. It’s frustrating. On Saturday, you build everything for your race, you store the adrenaline in you to release it at the start, but today, everything stopped very quickly. »
Max Verstappen was luckier and managed to finish a solitary race in 5th position. However, he couldn’t hope for better this afternoon: « The start was very important today, and it was the only action in my race today. I managed to overtake Felipe and Daniel, and from there, it became a very solitary race for me. I saw the cars in front of me pulling away, and I was able to distance myself from those behind me. So I just had to bring the car to the finish. »
