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'Really, really sad': Daniel Ricciardo left gutted over F1 drama

McLaren F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo (pictured right) during an interview and (pictured left) two McLaren car at the Spanish GP.
McLaren F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo (pictured right) said it was a 'sad' day for him at the Spanish GP after struggling with his tyres. (Images: Getty Images/F1)

Aussie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo has admitted his bewilderment and frustration after he went through four sets or tyres in a tough race at the Spanish GP.

World champion Max Verstappen took a dramatic victory at the Spanish GP after Charles Leclerc was forced to retire while leading the race.

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However, Leclerc wasn't the only driver left frustrated after the race with Aussie Ricciardo perplexed to what happened with his drive.

Riccardo went from ninth to 12th, which saw him go through four sets of tyres.

"Struggled from the start," Ricciardo said in a McLaren video.

"Simply just had less grip than everyone else around me, so we are certainly struggling.

"I thought it was just the first set of tyres. I thought we ought to pick it up.

"But we had three other attempts, we did a three stop race...just struggled a lot."

In a separate interview, Ricciardo said it was a 'sad' day for him after the tyre changes.

"Was very slow on all of them, not sure. Really, really sad race," Ricciardo said.

McLaren quiet on Daniel Ricciardo tyre drama

Unfortunately, McLaren boss Andreas Seidl didn't expand on the tyre drama and said they needed to figure out what went wrong.

“Obviously disappointed with how the race on Daniel’s car went,” Seidl said.

“(It’s) something we need to understand because all the tyre sets we fitted today he simply struggled with grip compared to all the other cars around him.”

Ricciardo added that it wasn't a small difference between himself and the other drives, but a number of seconds.

“It’s one of those races that it was so slow that you kind of, nearly sounds bad to say, but you hope that something was wrong,” Ricciardo told reporters.

“You hope that we find something that is like, ‘oh, that’s why’, because probably more concerning if we don’t.

“It wasn’t like a tenth or two tenths (of a second) off. It felt like over a second at times.

“I don’t know that for a fact but I certainly saw the cars pass me and pull away very quickly.”

At the top of the pack, disaster struck when Leclerc's car lost power on Lap 27 of 66.

Leclerc, who was leading by 11 seconds, screamed: "No! No! No! What happened?"

Sky Sports commentator Ted Kravitz said: “Shock on the Ferrari pitwall.

“Charles Leclerc could scarcely believe it. He’s distraught.”

Martin Brundle added: “That’s a big moment for the world championship.”

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