Daniel Ricciardo had a difficult outing at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as former Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon won his first ever Formula 1 race.
Starting in 11th place, the West Australian ended the 70-lap race in 12th despite spending the majority of the race inside the points.
It was an extremely tough day for Ricciardo, who was an unfortunate victim of first lap mayhem that saw five cars retire. The damage from the first turn incident also hampered Ricciardo for the rest of the race.
With light rain forcing all teams switch to intermediate tyres pre-race, most drivers got off to a solid start off the line, including Ricciardo, before things turned pear shaped at the first corner of the race.
Valtteri Bottas missed his braking mark and ran into the back of Lando Norris and took out Sergio Perez as a result, while Lance Stroll tried to avoid the drama but instead slid into the path of Charles Leclerc and hit the Ferrari driver who then ended up collecting Ricciardo.
Ricciardo, who at the point had made it up to second place albeit briefly, was spun around by Leclerc and sustained significant damage to various parts of his car. Ricciardo was able to make it to the pits when the race was red flagged and some minor repairs could be made to keep him in the hunt.
The opening corner drama. Photo: Fox Sports
As it looked like he was on track to salvage a highly deserved points paying finish, Ricciardo was overtaken by another victim of the early drama in Max Verstappen with just nine laps to go.
A chance at gaining even a solitary point was over when he eventually fell behind Kimi Raikkonen towards the end the race and finished 12th ahead of only Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi.
“I was halfway around Turn 1 and I thought I’d escaped the mess,” Ricciardo said.
“I could see one car in front and thought ‘I’m P2! This is amazing!’ and just as I exited the corner, I saw Charles [Leclerc] come into me, but I’d suspected someone went into him, because he caught me really late in the corner.
“There were a few other drivers making mistakes into the first corner and it cost a lot of us a race.
“Valtteri [Bottas] obviously cost Lando his race and Lance [Stroll] cost me mine.
“There were parts where I could hang on to the cars ahead, but with the car damage we had, and the difficulty overtaking here, it really just limited our race.
“In the end, the tyres were gone, and it was just about trying to hang on for dear life, but I couldn’t hang on to the points.
“I tried to hold on to Max, and to be honest I thought I did okay. I don’t know how many laps I held him off, but once he was past, the race was done, which is a shame.”
Following a post-race disqualification to the second placed Sebastian Vettel due to fuel sample issues, Ricciardo was then elevated to P11.
Other benefactors to the German’s disqualification were Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, who finished second and third respectively behind Ocon after both pulled off fantastic recovery drives.
For Hamilton, a strategic error during the second formation lap where he was the only one not to switch to slicks, saw him drop to the back of the field, before moving his way through the field, while Sainz recovered from a disastrous qualifying that saw him crash into the barrier.
The chaotic race start also saw Williams drivers Nicholas Latifi and George Russell secure their first career points for the team, while first-year rookie Yuki Tsunoda picked up the best result of his season with sixth.
The FIA Formula 1 World Championship now enters its summer break and will return for the Belgian Grand Prix on 29 August.