Ricciardo blames hard tyres for 'killing' his race

Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo blamed his switch to hard tyres during his first pitstop as the reason why he lacked the pace to challenge for points in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Ricciardo, going as far as saying that the switch to Pirelli's hardest compound 'killed his race' could only manage an eleventh place finish in the final race of the season.

"I don't want to be critical but I'm just going to say how it is," Ricciardo said. "Sometimes we get that in F1 but tonight was a boring night. Happy that it's over, happy to go on a break soon.

"Obviously both cars missed out on points today and personally, the hard tyre killed my race. I didn't have speed on it at all and it was one of those things as a driver, you know straight away.

"Like you know we do test five or even seven laps sometimes but you need an out-lap to know how the car is going to be and I felt it already at turn eight on the out-lap on the hard."

Ricciardo also explained how he initially tried to stay positive but eventually couldn't help but tell his team that he was suffering with pace after the pitstop.

Ricciardo made a second call to the pits for soft tyres late on in the Grand Prix but felt the added pit stop came too late to be able to make a difference

"My gut told me that this was going to be a pretty shitty stint and I didn't say it on the radio straight away," Ricciardo added. 

"I didn't want to be negative on the first laps but after a few laps, I told the boys that we aren't going anywhere. Eventually, we did a two-stop and the soft was a ton better, but it was too little too late."