THE RACE WAS A STRUGGLE FOR RICCIARDO

Ricciardo made a great start but had to back off owing to the wall of cars ahead, then was squeezed between Hamilton and Ocon, tipping his team-mate into a spin.

He held seventh in the first stint but came under increasing pressure as the race progressed. Running on the most common strategy, he slipped behind Leclerc, Sainz and Norris – spinning in battle with the latter.

His progressive qualifying approach paid dividends, but after the first 100 metres the race was a struggle. Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo says it would “feel like a robbery” if Formula 1 cars were unable to show their full potential at other events, following a lack of grip in Turkey.

Formula 1 returned to Istanbul Park after a nine-year absence with the weekend’s action dominated by a lack of grip owing to the recently resurfaced track.

Cold conditions, hard tyre compounds and the lack of support categories accentuated matters prior to persistent rainfall affecting running through qualifying and the race.

The slippery conditions caught out Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell on their reconnaissance laps, though both were able to start the race, with several drivers – including Ricciardo – suffering a spin during the grand prix.

“I knew everybody sitting on the couch was going to have a fun and exciting one to watch,” he said.

“I don’t know if we learned anything from this weekend. Because we will probably never come to a situation like it with this level of grip.

“When teams are spending so much money developing cars and putting all the knowledge into designing the fastest race cars in the world, not being able to use them feels like a little bit of, obviously not this weekend it is an anomaly, but if it was [like this] all the time it would feel like a robbery.

“Why are we putting so much into these cars if we cannot actually push the limits?

“We did not really get to push an F1 car this weekend, sure it made it tricky and exciting but it was hard to get a lot of satisfaction out of it from a driving point of view.”

It is understood that organisers in Turkey had a short time frame in which to undertake a full track resurface, which was hindered by atypically wet and disruptive weather in the region.

“I sympathise because it is a last-minute calendar, so I do not want to go too hard on them,” he said.

“But I don’t recommend they resurface the tracks like this a month before we come here deliberately.”

THE RACE WAS A STRUGGLE FOR RICCIARDO THE RACE WAS A STRUGGLE FOR RICCIARDO

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