Daniel Ricciardo was happy to come out of a troubled Australian Grand Prix weekend with a fourth place finish for Red Bull.
However he was still annoyed by the three-place grid penalty he'd received on Friday for speeding under red flag conditions. That had dropped him to eighth place on the grid for the race, from where he battled his way forward to finish fourth.
"I’m happy with the way I drove today and we had a very fast race car," he said after the race.
Ricciardo made early in-roads with an impressive dive down the inside of turn 13 to pass Renault's Nico Hulkenberg. He also gained positions under the controversial virtual safety car period that followed the Haas double retirement.
That left him in fourth place. but that was as far as he was able to get. A podium was simply not on today and he was forced to follow Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to the chequered flag.
"It’s not often I sit behind someone for most of the race, but it’s a tight track and one of the more tricky ones for passing.
"I obviously tried to do all I could with Kimi," he insisted. "There were a couple of times I had a look at turn three but Kimi was wise to that and could see what I was planning.
"I did everything I could. I tried keeping pressure on Kimi the whole last stint then I backed off and tried again," he added. "But he was able to up the pace as well.
"So I didn't kind of get comfortable today, I really tried to make something happen today. But in the end it would have been nice to start further up the front!"
It meant that once again Ricciardo was denied the chance to reward the fans at his home race.
"It's obviously close today. Even at the end I could see Lewis - he was pretty close to us. So I could touch it!"
Overall, he was pleased by the race pace and performance of the RB14.
"Being so close to the podium and getting fastest lap is definitely an encouraging way to start the season," he said, "Really good times for things to come in the next few weeks.
"We were definitely one of if not the quickest cars on track today," he said. "Hopefully that's representative moving forward.
"We're obviously very close to Ferrari's pace," he suggested. "We've still got to find pace on one lap [in qualifying], but the race pace is good.
And despite the grid penalty and missing out on a podium, Ricciardo was happy to have another race weekend in the bag.
"I was always going to leave here happier today," he said. "Just to race, just to get that first one over.
"It's been a long time coming," he commented. "I feel the lead-up to the first race is so dragged out and so long. It's hard to enjoy the week leading up to it.
"It's a bit of a tease," he added. "You just want to race.
"So I woke up happy today. I was just like, regardless - let's have fun, let's compete. And it was good, real fast at the end.
"Now it’s definitely time to go and put my feet up for a couple of days after a busy week!"
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