Daniel Ricciardo says he apologised to Nico Hulkenberg after the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix as following a lap-one collision between the pair.
RB driver Ricciardo was battling with Hulkenberg in the mid-pack on the opening lap of Sunday’s Monza race when the pair came together at Turn 8.
Ricciardo says he thought he had space, but felt contact – with the Haas of Hulkenberg forced onto the dirt and ceding a place to team-mate Kevin Magnussen.
The Australian was given a five-second time penalty for the incident, though later had to serve a 10s penalty after one of his mechanics touched his car while he was serving the original punishment at his pitstop.
Ricciardo ended a troubled home race for the RB squad in 13th.
“Ultimately, we weren’t quick enough today, even without the penalties,” he said.
“We tried, and I was enjoying the wheel-to-wheel racing at the start, but I made contact with Nico in Turn 8.
“I spoke to him after the race, I thought we had space, but felt the contact so didn’t give him enough room, and I apologised.
“It’s tough as you race hard but the smallest margins make a difference.
“The car felt ok after, and we pushed as hard as we could with what we had. I was trying to get the maximum out of the car from Friday afternoon to today.
“Personally, I feel a lot better this weekend, and we were close to scoring points.”
Tsunoda left ‘frustrated’
RB’s Italian GP was “dictated by Hulkenberg”, according to team Laurent Mekies, as a collision between the Haas driver and Yuki Tsunoda ultimately ended the Japanese driver’s race.
“I’m pretty frustrated, it’s a shame as my race finished a few laps after the start due to a contact with Nico,” Tsunoda said.
“I tried to leave as much space as possible, but it seemed he locked up, causing him to lose control and crash into me.
“Unfortunately, we had to retire the car as we got some damage on the floor.
“I felt it straight away and tried to continue, but the car was sliding around and I simply wasn’t able to drive it.
“We have Baku and Singapore next, our car should perform well there, so hopefully we’ll have good weekends ahead.”
Mekies’ frustrations with the Tsunoda incident stem from the fact he lost valuable track time in the updated RB car brought to Monza.
“As for today’s race, one could say it was dictated by Hulkenberg, with Daniel given a five-second penalty, having forced him of the track, before Nico then drove into Yuki, leading to us retiring the car,” he said.
“The most frustrating aspect of Yuki’s retirement is that we lost 40 laps that would have increased our understanding of the updates we introduced here.
“Daniel then received a further 10-second penalty because we didn’t execute the first one correctly.
“We will need to review our procedures in this scenario and learn from today’s mistake. These things happen, but our pit crew work has generally been exceptional this season.”
