Ricciardo frustrated as power unit failure ruins Mexico fightback

Daniel Ricciardo made no secret of his frustration after seeing a stunning early rise through the field go to waste when he was forced to retire from the Mexican Grand Prix due to a power unit failure on his Red Bull Formula 1 car.

Ricciardo started the race from 16th after taking a grid penalty for taking three new power unit elements ahead of the race, with the fresh parts being fitted after qualifying to help him get to the end of the season with no further drops.

Ricciardo charged from P16 to run as high as eighth in the opening stages in Mexico, only to be forced to park his car up in the garage after just five laps due to a suspected turbocharger issue.

"I'm obviously frustrated. The first few laps were pretty good, we got up inside the top eight I think, maybe even seventh," Ricciardo said.

"I could hear the turbo started to sound funny, and then it just had no power left. I was able to limp it back to the pits, but that was it. It seems like probably a turbo failure at this stage.

"It's a shame. We put the new one in thinking that would be a bit more durable, but yeah..."

While Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was able to charge to victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, four of the six Renault-powered cars in the race retired with issues as the high altitude nature of the circuit caused problems.

"It was always going to be tough here coming this weekend, but why more tough this year than last year, I have no idea," Ricciardo said.

"We certainly struggled to keep everything in check. The weekend was looking good on Friday and turned pretty bad. 

"I still don't know how I can smile.  I'm certainly hurting inside. It's one of those ones I guess.

"Hopefully it doesn't hurt us in Brazil now. We'll see."