Ricciardo smelt double points finish before he ‘lost drive’

Daniel Ricciardo believed that McLaren had a strong chance of getting both cars in the points at the Saudi Arabian GP before his DNF.

McLaren, hampered by an issue with their front brakes, underwhelmed at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, though the second round in Saudi Arabia was a more positive outing.

Granted, it was certainly not a smooth weekend for Ricciardo, who took a three-place grid penalty into the race for obstructing Esteban Ocon during qualifying, but fortunately the MCL36 looked to be a more competitive package this time around.

Lando Norris demonstrated that by finishing P7 and Ricciardo saw the chance to join his team-mate in the points, that was until his McLaren shut down on him, coming to a complete stop at the pit entry.

LAP 37/50

Now Ricciardo is struggling. The Aussie pulls up yards before the pit lane entry. "I've got no drive"

The Virtual Safety Car has been deployed#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/uoF783Kit2

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 27, 2022

“I lost drive so there could be a number of things, maybe drive shaft if I was to guess but I am no mechanic so don’t take my word for it,” Ricciardo told reporters.

“Think we could’ve had double points which would have been pretty awesome from where we were a week ago.

“I think there are some positives to take from the weekend for sure, we still have a lot to go but certainly some progress which is nice.

“I think the racing is fun; you can follow this year and I think everything that we hoped would come out of these new cars so far is true, so I am very happy with that and like watching the battle for the lead.

“Course I want to be there but to know we can fight hard like that this year is really exciting so hopefully we will be battling for some