Daniel Ricciardo penalized for his collision in Baku
The Renault driver has been penalized three grid places for the start of the next Grand Prix in Spain for his surprising collision with Daniil Kvyat.
Only incident of this Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo received a three-place grid penalty for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks. The reason? That collision in the run-off area with Daniil Kvyat.
In a battle on the 31st lap, the Renault driver attempted a daring dive-bomb on his opponent in the Toro Rosso. Locking his wheels, Ricciardo took the unfortunate Kvyat with him into the runoff area. But as if that weren’t enough, Ricciardo tried to get out in reverse. Only, he hadn’t seen that the Toro Rosso No. 26 was right behind him! Result:
The Australian backed into his opponent, which subsequently halted the race for both drivers.
Daniel Ricciardo then spoke about this incident: “I’m not happy with what happened. It was looking good for us, we had the pace and I was closing the gap to Daniil. There was an opening. It’s always tight at turn 3, but I locked a wheel and went straight. After that, I guess I had a sense of urgency, I wanted to lose as little time as possible and I didn’t check the mirrors. I engaged reverse gear and didn’t realize he was there, I thought he would have crossed over. My first mistake caused another one.”
Indeed, this error is very costly, as Renault drops to seventh place among constructors tonight, while Daniel Ricciardo stands far back in 13th place in the drivers’ standings. This stint at Renault is currently a cold shower for the former Red Bull resident, who has only scored points once, in China, with a 7th place finish. A missed opportunity for the French manufacturer, which could have secured valuable points in this very tight midfield battle. Meanwhile, McLaren scored 10 points in Baku with both its drivers…
