Ricciardo penalized… twice!
7th at the finish, 11th in the final standings, Daniel Ricciardo delivered a strong performance at Paul Ricard, battling with drivers like Pierre Gasly, Kimi Räikkönen, and Lando Norris in the final laps. However, the Australian was ultimately penalized twice by the stewards for two actions in the last lap!
Behind the two McLarens in the race, Renault had a sense of underachievement after being beaten by its customer team. However, Ricciardo could be pleased with his 8th place in Q3, thus beating Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull. A less remarkable result for Nico Hülkenberg, who started from 13th place on hard tires.
Losing two places at the start, Ricciardo was overtaken by Gasly at the wheel of his RB15, and by Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo. But the severe degradation of the soft tires allowed the Perth native to move back ahead. It was after his pit stop, on the 17th lap, that Ricciardo got rid of Gasly with the help of DRS.
The Australian driver’s race was then rather calm until he caught up with a struggling Lando Norris. This duel turned into a four-way battle when Kimi Räikkönen and Nico Hülkenberg joined in. Ricciardo then attempted an attack, diving onto the McLaren of the Brit approaching the chicane, but went too far, beyond the track! This incident benefited Räikkönen and Hülkenberg, who quickly overtook Norris’s car. Räikkönen even made a double move by overtaking Ricciardo!
But Ricciardo hadn’t had his last word and positioned himself again in front of the Alfa Romeo with a rather controversial maneuver. Indeed, the driver bearing number 3 went off the track with all four wheels to get ahead of the F1 veteran. An overtaking move that resulted in him being under investigation by the FIA.
The FIA’s verdict was, to say the least, very severe! Ricciardo ultimately receives a 5-second penalty for rejoining the track without heeding safety instructions. To top it off, another 5-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. This sanction drops the Australian to 11th place, allowing Gasly to enter the top 10.
Even penalized, Ricciardo did not regret his French Grand Prix: « I believe the broadcast didn’t even show our on-track battle, and it was the only one! They only showed it in replay. It’s a shame because it was very exciting! I had a good start but was too conservative at the first corner, braking far too early. In the end, I did a good job. We knew Norris had problems, so I attacked him but missed my braking. I still managed to get Kimi. I enjoyed it; it was tight and fun. »
The thing is, I did everything I could to stay on the track. With this new surface, you can see there’s a shiny trajectory that’s full of grip, and everything else is like being on marbles. That’s the problem with such an open circuit. If there are walls, then I’m in the wall. But there are so many blind spots with these wide cars, and the mirrors being where they are, once Lando is there, I see nothing. So I’m trying to be respectful and stay on my trajectory, but it’s really hard to see.
