Ricciardo slams penalty-free moves by Vettel and Hamilton

Daniel Ricciardo was left foiled and frustrated after his fourth place finish in the Mexican GP, believing his place was on the third step of the podium following a controversial move by Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was promoted to third when Max Verstappen was hit with a 5s time penalty, but the Ferrari driver was himself under scrutiny for turning into Ricciardo under braking into Turn 4.

In the end, Ricciardo feels that he was teh one left out to dry.

"He did what everyone has been complaining about - moving under braking," explained the Australian.

"He's smiling now but for me he doesn't deserve to be on the podium. He kept on closing the door under braking and in the end I had nowhere to go."

The Aussie also questioned the stewards decision to turn a blind eye to Lewis Hamilton's cutting the first corner at the start, a decision which he saw in hindsight as the application of a double standard.

"To be honest I didn’t understand the start. How you can be leading the race, defend, lock your wheels and go off-track and still stay in the lead?

" I think Lewis deserved a penalty, I think anyone in that position deserves a penalty. I saw Max cut the chicane trying to defend from Seb, he got a penalty, so I don’t know to be honest what was different with his move and Lewis’.

"For me if you lock up the brakes and cut the corner, it’s a mistake, you have to pay the price. I was just frustrated with how it all panned out today really."

For anyone who may be tempted to call the Aussie a complainer, Ricciardo insisted he was trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

"Don’t get me wrong, I love racing, I love racing hard, locking brakes and a bit of contact is fine but this whole moving under braking, like if you are going to defend, commit early and you make your bed, you don’t do it more than once when you’ve been out-foxed.

"I felt like that’s what I did today, he moved, I went, I won the chess match if you like and he was like ‘Oh I’ve screwed up, I better repair my mistake’, so for me that’s not right. I would love to be up there [on the podium] but it was still a fun race."

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