Daniel Ricciardo says he was pleased at being able to attack and overtake other drivers during the Mexico City Grand Prix, in which he finished a competitive seventh. The Australian has generally endured a miserable 2022, scoring only 35 points to 111 for teammate Lando Norris, and is set to be dropped by McLaren at the end of this year to make way for rookie Oscar Piastri. However, Ricciardo rolled back the years in Mexico with a fine drive, aided by a late switch onto Soft tyres that saw him overtake six cars in the closing stages of the race. Speaking after the race, the Australian acknowledged that being able to attack and pass cars made a nice change from his struggles so far this year. "Even last year, I feel we were normally defending [more] than attacking, so just to have an attacking race and feel like I can attack a little bit more, it's just a nice feeling," Ricciardo told media, including RacingNews365.com , adding that his late switch to Soft tyres came about as he had little to lose when outside the points. "As soon as I got out the pits, the tyre was so much better. I could lean on it, and I felt like I was in control, so I was like, let's just use this tyre, see what it's got, and then it stayed relatively consistent," said Ricciardo.
Ricciardo accepts some blame for Tsunoda clash
Ricciardo's seventh place came despite the Australian being slapped with a ten-second penalty for a collision with Yuki Tsunoda that caused the Japanese driver to retire. While Ricciardo acknowledged that he was partly to blame for the incident, he stopped short of accepting full responsibility. "Now I've seen a few replays, I'll take more of the responsibility, but I certainly don't feel 100 to zero in terms of my fault," said Ricciardo. "I didn't actually plan to overtake him there. I just thought if I stay there, all the grip is on the inside of that corner. "It's very dusty, so I thought if I could just keep him a bit on the dirty line, I'd get a better exit. "We probably needed to give each other 20 or 30 more centimetres and we'd be fine. "I wish it didn’t happen, and I’m sorry that it happened, but I think [a ten-second penalty] was more than enough."
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