Daniel Ricciardo hit out at Lance Stroll’s unapologetic stance on their collision at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Stroll went into the back of Ricciardo’s RB car as the pack slowed before a restart following a spell behind the Safety Car.
The cars ahead had slowed dramatically at the penultimate corner and were bunched tightly together, although all avoided contact with each other.
On the radio immediately afterwards, Stroll appeared to blame Ricciardo.
“I’d slowly started to calm down, and then I was told what Lance thinks of the incident,” Ricciardo said, having retired from the race several laps after the collision. “Apparently, I’m an idiot, and it was my fault. That made my blood boil, because it’s clear as day and it’s also behind a safety car.
“The only thing you’ve got to do is watch the car in front. We can’t predict what the leader’s gonna do. The race doesn’t start until the control line.
“I’m doing my best not to say what I want to say, but f— that guy. And I’m being nice, too! But if that’s what he thinks…”
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Ricciardo also said the onboard camera on Stroll’s Aston Martin suggested he had not been looking at the car in front of him before the collision, as his head appeared to be facing towards the apex of the corner ahead.
Stroll pitted immediately after the incident and then was told he had a 10-second penalty for the incident for good measure.
“Unbelievable man!” He said on radio when told about it.
The Canadian driver felt it was unfair to be penalised when all the cars in front of him had slowed so dramatically.
Explaining after the race what happened, Stroll said: “Concertina effects. So someone braked at the front of the pack, I don’t know who. And then everyone stops. The car in front of me just stopped from like 60 to zero, so a really stupid incident. It was one of those.”
Stroll clarified his radio message about Ricciardo from the race and explained why he felt hard done by with the penalty.
“I don’t think it was him. Everyone just slammed on the brakes and he was the guy in front of me.”
He added: “I think it’s [a penalty] just because of the fact that I hit the guy. But someone hit the brakes and caused the concertina. I don’t know who. I got a penalty because of the end result that I hit Ricciardo, but it’s not like, everything was normal and I just slammed into the back of him.”
On the suggestion he had not been paying attention, Stroll said: “No, no, if someone didn’t hit the brakes in front, there wouldn’t have been any concertina effect, there wouldn’t have been any issues.”
The stewards’ verdict read: “We determined that Car 18 [Stroll] ought to have anticipated the pace of the cars in front, particularly Car 3 [Ricciardo] and should have prepared to brake accordingly. Had it done that, it would have avoided the collision. Hence Car 18 was predominantly to blame for the collision that ultimately led to Car 3 having to retire from the race.”
Stroll was also given two penalty points on his superlicence, meaning he has four for the current rolling 12-month period.
A driver is automatically banned for one race if they ever accumulate 12 points during that spell.
To add a further set-back for Ricciardo, the stewards gave him a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Miami, and two penalty points on his superlicense for overtaking Nico Hulkenberg under safety car conditions.
Source: www.espn.com