Ricciardo unimpressed by Hamilton pit lane delaying tactics

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Daniel Ricciardo has hit out at Formula 1 rival Lewis Hamilton for employing delaying tactics on the entrance to the pit lane during the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton led Ricciardo on-track when the safety car was called early on in Bahrain, under which Mercedes planned to double-stack its drivers.

Valtteri Bottas was brought in from the race lead ahead of Hamilton, prompting the Briton to try and slow down to create a gap so that he was not held up in the pit lane.

While Hamilton was entitled to slow down on-track and create the gap with Ricciardo passing, he was not allowed to do this in the pit lane, resulting in a five-second time penalty for impeding the Australian.

Hamilton admitted after the race that he was at fault for the penalty, but Ricciardo was less than impressed by the Mercedes driver's actions.

"Emotional times at the front of the F1 pack here..." Ricciardo told Channel 4 after the race.

"He was obviously backing up so he could get a clear pit stop and Valtteri wasn't in there. I believe before pit entry that was fine, but here, where he's not going quick, I believe that's why he got the penalty.

"I was pretty calm. I was like 'please...'. I knew what he was doing. I thought he might be at risk of a penalty."

When asked if he would have done the same as Hamilton, Ricciardo said: "I would have done it before the pit lane, because I think that's A-OK. I'm not going to tell him my secrets, but I would have done it differently."

Ricciardo endured a quiet race en route to fifth place for Red Bull, which ran firmly as the third-fastest team once again in Bahrain behind Ferrari and Mercedes.

"I wanted a hug in those last few laps. It was a bit lonely out there," Ricciardo joked. "It was just more kind of sad at the end, because at the beginning, although we were at the tail end of that lead pack and we were all in it, we all had a chance to even win at that stage.

"I could see the cars in front were starting to slide on their rears and I genuinely felt like I was in a better place than Max and even Lewis at that stage. I had a lot of hope and then we lost a lot with that second stint on the soft."

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