Daniel Ricciardo was left confused and frustrated at the end of the British Grand Prix by his McLaren's depressed pace as he had no clear explanation for the deficit.
While McLaren teammate Lando Norris enjoyed a reasonably good race at Silverstone where the Briton finished sixth, Ricciardo once again endorsed the role of second fiddle.
From P14 on the grid, the Aussie spent the bulk of his lonely afternoon outside of the top ten, ultimately crossing the checkered flag in 13th position after what he described as "a pretty poor race".
"Zero pace," a frustrated Ricciardo told the media at the end of the day. "A little bit like Barcelona where I didn’t seem to operate at the same level of grip as the cars around me.
"I could just feel it through the tyres as well, trying to carry speed.
"Obviously a little bit confused by that at the moment. It’s clear what I felt, but the reasons why I’m obviously not sure. It was just a bit odd, so we have a bit of investigating to do."
Ricciardo also revealed admitted that a DRS failure that materialized on lap 31 also weighed on his efforts.
"Something honestly felt a bit off. I remember turning or braking into Turn 6, and the car was all over the place," he explained.
"I thought I had a puncture, so when I went to look at the rear tyre, I saw the DRS was open.
"We had a failure there, so I came back to the pits to fix it, but then obviously we couldn't use it because the fear that it would get stuck open again.
"At the end then on the restart, I couldn't really attack the cars. But simply we weren’t really quick enough anyway. It was a bit of a lonely afternoon.
"Hopefully we find some answers because obviously it’s a quick turnaround to Austria."
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl commended Norris for delivering points to the team but the German had no explanation for Ricciardo's disappointing race.
"For us, the positive we take away is that we had a more competitive car this weekend and we’re back in the points after two difficult races," said the German.
"Lando looked competitive all day but unfortunately lost out to Fernando in the final pit-stop, behind the Safety Car.
"Daniel’s weekend didn’t go to plan, which will need careful analysis over the next few days. He wasn’t in a position to deliver competitive lap times yesterday and today.
"In addition, he experienced a DRS failure that required an additional pit-stop mid-race and required him to run without the DRS in the second half of the race."
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