For Daniel Ricciardo, it was a weekend of pure frustration at the German Grand Prix.Even before it had begun the Red Bull driver knew he would be disadvantaged by having to start at the back of the grid, as his team installed three new engine components which took him over his permitted allocation for the season.But then, that mostly fresh Renault power unit would capitulate once again as a loss of power forced the Australian to pull off to the side of the Hockenheim track.That would mark his third retirement of the season and second in three races with all three linked in some way to the engine.“I felt it braking for Turn 6 when I was downshifting. I heard something was funny, basically. Well, not funny, sick,” Ricciardo said back in the paddock.“Then when I accelerated, I expected something when I got on the power and yeah, it was underpowered. Then I could hear some noises and it didn’t sound healthy.”

It was a wretched end to what was a difficult race until that point as the 29-year-old struggled to make the same kind of progress through the field from 19th that Lewis Hamilton had from 14th on the grid, mostly as a result of his tyre choice.

“To be honest, the first 10-15 laps was really hard with the Medium compound. I don’t think, in hindsight, it was a very good tyre. I was really struggling in the traffic and even off the start, I just had no grip,” he explained.

“But then, once I got clear air, we were able to do some low 1m18s which seemed competitive at the time but yeah, it was looking alright.”

The reason for using the slowest but most durable compound was the threat of rain expected around an hour into the race, but Ricciardo would never get far enough to reap any benefit, coming to a halt on Lap 29.

“We struggled for that first part but then once we got a good run, I think the race probably would have come to us,” the Red Bull man continued.

“But yeah, would’ve, could’ve... That's racing. You know it too well. I’m in here too often actually so it hurts, it always does but what do you do.”

Now the seven-time Grand Prix faces a wait to see if the cause of his failure was linked to one of the parts in the engine which he took on as part of his grid penalty in Germany.

If so, and it cannot be used again this weekend, then maybe Ricciardo could face another setback in Hungary, a race he and Red Bull hope to win around the tight, twisty layout.