Spin under VSC leaves Ricciardo a bored P5

Daniel Ricciardo was left bored in fifth place in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix after a spin during the Virtual Safety Car period missed by cameras left him more than 20 seconds adrift of Red Bull Formula 1 teammate Max Verstappen at the chequered flag.

Ricciardo spent the early part of the race running sixth just behind Verstappen as both drivers went long on their first stints, committing to a one-stop strategy as the cars ahead mulled a second visit to the pits.

While Verstappen was able to benefit from Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement and a second stop for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to score his first podium finish of the season in P3, Ricciardo finished 22 seconds adrift in fifth.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed on Sky Sports F1 after the race that Ricciardo had spun under the VSC just before the race returned to green flag conditions, explaining the time difference.

“He had a sneaky spin the camera didn’t pick up behind the Virtual Safety Car on the restart,” Horner said.

“He dropped about 12 seconds to that pack and that point. But you could see his pace in clear air at the end of the race there.”

"At the beginning of the race it felt like we were hanging on,” Ricciardo explained. “Kimi wasn’t particularly quick and Max and myself seemed like we had more pace.

“I came out of the pits and we had traffic with three cars fighting and that lost me more distance to Max and Kimi at the time until his problems.

“Then the VSC, I had a spin at the restarted so I was struggling to keep these tyres warm. Fortunately I didn’t hit any walls like [Romain] Grosjean in Baku but obviously it put me in no man’s land.

“There were signs of good pace, but it was a pretty boring race.”