Ricciardo feeling blue after birthday blow-out in Austria

Daniel Ricciardo started Sunday celebrating his 29th birthday, but there was less for him to cheer about after he was forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix with a broken exhaust.

"I'm obviously disappointed with how the day went," the Red Bull driver admitted after the race, which was won by his team mate Max Verstappen - the first time Red Bull had won at its home circuit.

"But there’s no point being upset,” Ricciardo told Channel 4 F1. “I know what I signed up for with this sport as a kid and sometimes it does this. Things happen out of your control, it is what it is.

“I don’t want to stand here and talk about my sob story and how my birthday didn’t go well," he said. "For Red Bull, the team, everyone here, it’s the perfect day.”

"I'm happy for Red Bull," Ricciardo insisted. "The team, the brand, the people. And happy for Max who has so many fans here.

"I saw [Red Bull owner] Mr Mateschitz earlier and I can imagine what he is feeling right now.

"It's not my day, but from the team's point of view, for the Austrians and for Max, it's a big day for them. So I'm happy that some part of the team will be celebrating today."

Ricciardo had started the race from seventh place on the grid, and immediately took advantage of first-lap chaos to jump up two places.

He was able to pass Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, and pitting under a Virtual Safety Car for Valtteri Bottas' retirement helped him improve still further.

By lap 25 he was running up in second behind his team mate. But a problem with blistering on his rear tyres was becoming a mounting problem for the Australian.

• Verstappen's dramatic home win for Red Bull amid Mercedes nightmare

"At one stage it was looking like a one-two," he said. "But in all honesty as soon as we put the softs on it didn't feel like it gave me much.

"Even though we were able to get Kimi, I didn't feel like I was able to pull away," he noted. "And then I saw the tyre was getting torn apart.

"We had to pit and that put us out of contention for the podium," he sighed.

It dropped him down to fifth place. But he kept pushing in the hope that one of the cars ahead would have similar issues, and sure enough it was Lewis Hamilton who was similarly forced to make an unscheduled second pit stop.

That put Ricciardo ahead of the Mercedes with 20 laps remaining. But when Ricciardo tried to push to stay ahead, the car suddenly lost power.

"We had what I think was a broken exhaust which put me out of the race," he explained. "The soft tyre fell apart which was strange, not sure why it did, but I think the broken exhaust was what killed the race in the end.

"I could feel something was wrong down the back straight before the last sector, so I mentioned it and then tried to do a procedure but the call came for me to stop."

Ricciardo pulled over and parked by the side of the road, a disappointing end to his birthday race which at one point had promised so much.

"I don't think I'll celebrate too much for my birthday," he said. "But you know, maybe a cognac to get over these sniffles!"

Team boss Christian Horner admitted that Ricciardo's retirement had left him fearing the same fate might be in store for Verstappen.

“We were quite concerned that there might be a similar problem with Max," Horner revealed. "So we turned his engine down to try and reduce temperatures. And then only turned it up over the last five laps just to make sure the Ferraris weren’t going to get within the DRS."

Even so, Ricciardo's retirement had taken the shine off the Red Bull celebrations.

"“From my perspective I’m looking at 43 points, that’s our objective and we lost 18 today in losing fifth,” Horner told Channel 4. “It was gutting because its not just the one race, it’s the championship as well.

"Those 18 points, on a day where both Mercedes retire, that’s points given away."

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