Ricciardo was in rivalry for a prime 10 spot on the Circuit of the Americas however began to tumble down the order halfway via the race.
The Australian was overtaken by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg earlier than making a late pit cease for contemporary rubber to set the quickest lap – which was later crushed by AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Talking after the race, Ricciardo blamed his “depressing” comeback on harm he sustained.
“We have been simply restricted with harm, sadly,” Ricciardo.
“We picked up some harm very shortly after the onerous as a result of we misplaced a whole lot of tempo in a short time.
“I instructed the crew ‘Sorry guys, I’ve received nothing proper now. I actually can’t do something’.
“They mentioned that it seemed like we’ve misplaced one thing, after which they mentioned, ‘Yeah, there’s harm to someplace on the entrance of the automotive’. I assume it was particles.
“They talked about (Lance) Stroll. I believe we received shut, however I don’t suppose we touched, so I believe we should have picked up some particles someplace, and that made our race a fairly depressing one.
“I received’t lie, we’re at finest a top-10 automotive however once you add harm into it, we’re definitely out of the factors.”
It was Ricciardo’s first again after he injured his wrist on the Dutch Grand Prix.
He admitted it was a “robust race” bodily however “nonetheless felt okay”.
“I felt most likely worse yesterday (after the dash) than right this moment – I say worse however I used to be clearly nonetheless okay,” Ricciardo added.
“However I felt like I received out of the automotive most likely sweating extra, so possibly that was only a good little warm-up for me.
“There are positives. The hand is not any excuse, that was good, and we did properly with the timing of the return, to sort of don’t have any hesitations or excuses.
“Bodily, it’s undoubtedly a troublesome race and I nonetheless felt okay.”