Motor racing-Ricciardo vents his fury by punching through wall

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Angry Australian Daniel Ricciardo left his mark on Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix by punching through a wall in the Red Bull hospitality after suffering yet another engine failure.

The power cut-out happened while he was in fourth place, having seen off a challenge from Ferrari's Formula One title contender Sebastian Vettel.

"He's taken out his frustration in his room by putting his fist through the wall, which you can totally relate to," commented team boss Christian Horner.

"I'm sure he'll be having a word with his future employers about it - it's so frustrating to keep losing him from races at the moment."

Ricciardo is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season for Renault, who provide his current team with their engines under Tag Heuer branding.

Horner said the failure was exactly the same one as Ricciardo suffered in Bahrain earlier in the year.

"It looks like a major issue in the energy store and it just takes out all the power," he said.

"We've got another energy store within the allocation without having to take a penalty and the Renault guys in the garage have obviously apologised, which we appreciate, but the frustration is for Daniel.

"He knows its not a team issue, he knows it's nothing we've done. He can't get his head around why it keeps happening to him," added the boss.

Ricciardo, whose Dutch team mate Max Verstappen finished second after starting 18th, lasted only eight laps before the failure.

"I couldn't even communicate with anyone on the radio so it looks like a battery failure," he said.

"Now, seeing how the race played out makes it even harder to take as it could have been pretty interesting and it was a great afternoon for Max." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)