Daniel Ricciardo says that Lance Stroll’s refusal to take responsibility for their contact in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix “made my blood boil”.
After launching his race from twelfth on the grid, Ricciardo had worked his way up into the top ten over the course of his second stint when the race was neutralized on lap 24 of 56 to allow for the safe evacuation of Valtteri Bottas’ stranded Sauber.
But on restart three laps later, a concertina effect materialized when Fernando Alonso, running fifth, locked up on his approach to the hairpin, the Aston Martin driver’s maneuver tightening up the single file group of cars.
However, an obviously inattentive Stroll was caught out by the sudden slowing and rammed the back of Ricciardo’s RB, lifting the latter and inflicting damage that would eventually prove terminal for both cars.
Stroll was quick to blame the Aussie, accusing Ricciardo of suddenly braking ahead of him. But the stewards begged to disagree and handed the Canadian a 10-secodn time, also adding two penalty points to his super licence.
For Ricciardo, who was positioned ninth at the time of the incident, the contact deprived the RB charger of a chance to score his first points of the season.
However, the Aussie was especially infuriated by Stroll’s complete lack of accountability.
"Maybe in an hour, when he sees it, he might take some accountability. But if he doesn't, I can't help him, nor can anyone here," Ricciardo said.
"It's so frustrating. Obviously, racing incidents happen, but behind a safety car, that should never happen.
"What made my blood boil is I watched his onboard, to just see it from his perspective. And as soon as we start braking, you can see his helmet turn right and he's looking at the apex of Turn 14, he's not even watching me. And then when he looks back, he's in the back of me.
"I don't know what he's doing, where his head is, but all he has to do is worry about me in that situation, and he clearly wasn't. Let's see what he says in the media, but if he comes after me, then I'll say more..."
Ricciardo was also unimpressed with Stroll’s heat-of-the-moment reaction following the contact when he called the RB driver an “idiot” for braking early.
"I'd slowly started to calm down, and then I was told what Lance thinks of the incident. 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*ck that guy. And I'm being nice, too! But if that's what he thinks..."
Later on, Stroll revisited his view of the incident.
"I don't think it was him," Stroll said. "Everyone just slammed on the brakes and he was the guy in front of me. So I don't think he slammed on the brakes, It was a concertina effect.
"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.
"There was a really odd concertina effect that I would have liked to see the stewards take into consideration maybe a little bit more."
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