Ricciardo ‘heartbroken’ after “out of the blue” power glitch in F1 Styrian GP

The McLaren driver had been left mystified by his lack of pace on Saturday as he struggled to P13 in qualifying, but a stunning start on Sunday saw Ricciardo gain five positions as he charged into the top-10.

Ricciardo’s hard work was undone when he suffered a sudden loss of power in his Mercedes engine and plummeted back down the order to 14th. The Australian eventually recovered to 13th and was left devastated by his race-ruining problem.

“We were sitting pretty and then all of a sudden we lost power,” Ricciardo explained.

“So all of that position that we gained, I basically just waved them on through. We were able to fix it on track but then it was too late and I was back in the mess I did well to get out of.

“It is painful to see all the work undone when you are trying to fix it and everyone is just going past you,” he added.

"The weekend obviously went from bad to worse. I am looking forward to getting out of here and coming back next week with a fresh approach.

"It is obviously heartbreaking for me and disheartening but I am not the only one who feels this pain and the race, from lap one after a bad one yesterday, it starts to look really promising.

"I think we could have been fifth and sixth today like we were a week ago [in France] so it could be a lot different but it is not. Luckily we get to go again in a week.”

Asked if it was an issue McLaren has experienced before, Ricciardo replied: “[It was] out of the blue. So for now I don’t know what it was. I’m not the only one hurting. I’m sure that they feel the pain as well. The weekend went from bad to worse, and it is just one of those ones.

“It was fine after that, so in a way that is kind of what sucks even more. When you drop back that much sometimes you are like let’s end the pain.

“We still had a long race to go, but once you’re in the train everyone has DRS, and clear air is so important around here. It was so static that I think everyone’s pace was quite similar and dirty air. So there was really nothing to do after that. The race changed like a switch.”