Ricciardo handed Abu Dhabi grid penalty for Magnussen collision

Daniel Ricciardo will have to serve a three place grid penalty next weekend in Abu Dhabi, in this final F1 race appearance for McLaren.

The penalty was handed down for his part in causing a first lap collision with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

The sprint race had enabled Ricciardo to start the race from 11th, while Magnussen - who had been on pole for the sprint - was eight on the grid.

When the lights went out, Ricciardo made an aggressive start but was caught out by Magnussen being slow to exit one of the opening corners.

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He ended up rear-ending the Haas, tipping into a spin. The pair then made secondary contact as Magnussen rolled back onto the track and caught Ricciardo out. That put both of them out of the race and triggered a safety car.

Afterwards, the race stewards reviewed the telemetry and video footage, and pronounced their verdict deeming the collision to be Ricciardo's fault.

“Ricciardo made contact with Magnussen at turn 8 on lap 1, which caused Magnussen to spin, and subsequently both cars crashed," the statement read.

"McLaren explained that in their view Magnussen was slower at the exit of turn eight than the other cars ahead, which made it difficult to judge the closing rate, as the two cars interacted.

“Ricciardo explained that in his view, he had slowed sufficiently that he was not going to collide with Magnussen and that he slightly misjudged it.

"The stewards acknowledged that the incident was not reckless. However, they determined that the incident was between two cars and was not influenced by multiple other cars and is therefore not a ‘first lap incident’.

"Magnussen drove in a normal manner for that corner, and he did not make any erratic moves. Thus the Stewards determine that Ricciardo was wholly to blame for the incident and issue a drop of three grid places for the next event.”

"I’m disappointed as it’s always difficult when your race is over so quickly," Ricciardo said afterwards. "I touched the back of Kevin and it’s a shame.

"I think the biggest disappointment is that it was such a small touch, but it had massive consequences. I didn’t expect him to spin. I guess that was just the angle that we touched and it just unloaded his rear.

"Most times you can get away with a small touch like that, so it was pretty unfortunate for both of us," he acknowledged. "Apologies to the team here and back at home but we will reset and go one more time in Abu Dhabi."

"It is what it is," responded Magnussen. "Daniel didn’t do it on purpose, which isn’t any help to us, but we move on.

"We’re not always up where we have been this weekend so it’s a shame that we weren’t able to capitalise on that fully today as we had great pace.”

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