Daniel Ricciardo spills on 'fight' with Renault teammate
Daniel Ricciardo has addressed his ‘fight’ with Esteban Ocon in the Styrian Grand Prix after Renault failed to order Ocon to let the Aussie pass him.
Ricciardo started behind his Renault teammate on the starting grid in Austria but soon came within striking distance of Ocon.
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With Ricciardo on medium tyres and Ocon on soft, the Aussie felt he was much faster.
After several laps biding his time behind Ocon, Ricciardo could be heard asking his team to order Ocon to stand down.
However he was forced to take matters into his own hands when the call never came.
“I asked a bit of a general question as I was, I felt, being held up by that group (in front),” Ricciardo told Motorsport.com.
“So I just said, ‘Look guys, I’m quite a bit quicker at the moment’.
“So I asked the question, and then I got past. But I believe the call was coming. If it wasn’t that lap, it was going to come. So it was being discussed on pit wall.
“I think obviously they could see we were both losing time trying to fight each other. So it was certainly being addressed.”
Ricciardo and Ocon’s first mid-race ‘fight’
It was the first time the Renault teammates have had any sort of real fight during a race.
“It's the first time we've gone I guess wheel to wheel,” Ricciardo said.
“Obviously I was obviously never gonna do anything too crazy, especially that early in the race, and I think because we were on different strategies.
“So if I didn't get by in that lap, I honestly was expecting to get a call to swap cars. I think I would have been a little bit surprised if I hadn't got that, but it was leaning that way anyways.
“I was obviously, especially after [retiring] last week and just wanting to try and get a race on board.
“I wasn't too interested in throwing any dive bombs too early in the race on on a teammate.”
Ocon was involved in a number of incidents with former teammate Sergio Perez at Racing Point and said he enjoyed the battle with Ricciardo.
“It's been good to race with Daniel,” he told Motorsport.com.
“I have to say, it was a very fair fight. We left other space. It was not too aggressive. And that's that's the way I want to race against I guess my teammate, really.
“From the start to the moment we were together, and we were together after he got in front. So I was gonna have a move again at the next rate before I retired.
“So yeah, it was a good fight. I was happy with how everything has been there. So looking forward to many more.
“I think the policy of the team so far was to let each other race but race cleanly. And that's what we did.”
