Credit: Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo’s Chinese GP was looking optimistic, in P9, at what looked like a competitive pace, until disaster struck in the safety car restart.
Heading into turn 14, Lance Stroll hit the back of Ricciardo, giving the RB substantial floor damage and ending Daniel’s race.
Immediately, Lance’s radio claimed “he (Daniel) braked early” denying blame for the situation.
As a result, Lance received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision, giving him responsibility for the incident.
In his post-race interview, a frustrated Daniel claimed Lance wasn’t paying attention, saying “You have to be as aware as possible”.
Daniel admitted that Lance blaming him pissed him off. He watched Strolls’ on board and claimed Lance “wasn’t even focused” on him (Daniel) as he went into the corner.
Lance, however, claimed it was “one of those weird racing incidents” going on to say, “The car in front of me just stopped. I had nowhere to go.”
Frustrated, Daniel expressed it had been a good weekend for RB before the incident. He qualified above his teammate and showed a decent pace in the first half of the race.
In light of that, He regretted that “our race got ruined by him (Stroll)” as he seemed capable of points.
Unfortunately, Daniel’s frustration continued as he was handed a three-place grid penalty for overtaking Hülkenberg under the safety car.
A 10-second penalty was changed to a grid drop because his retirement rendered him incapable of serving a time penalty.
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