Lance Stroll passes blame to Daniel Ricciardo for ‘frustrating’ Chinese GP collision

The 2024 Chinese Grand Prix was a chaotic race for varied reasons.

Lance Stroll passes blame to Daniel Ricciardo for ‘frustrating’ Chinese GP collision

Lance Stroll (L), Daniel Ricciardo (R) (images via IMAGO), Stroll crashing into Ricciardo's rear at the Chinese GP (via F1).

The Chinese Grand Prix this weekend saw a lot of on-track action and multiple collisions between drivers. One such collision was between the Aston Martin driver, Lance Stroll and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo just before the safety car restart.

Lance Stroll didn’t brake enough and went into the rear of Daniel Ricciardo just before turn 1 due to a pile-up ahead, causing both drivers and especially the Australian to sustain heavy damage. There’s been a lot of talk about the incident and how the Canadian should’ve done better in that situation. But, after the race the 25-year-old passed the blame for the incident on to Ricciardo.

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Lance Stroll’s lack of judgment ruined both his and Daniel Riccardo’s race.

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I didn’t have enough time to react and avoid contact with Daniel [Ricciardo]. It’s frustrating, because I ended up with the penalty, but the incident was caused by someone at the front of the pack braking suddenly.

Lance Stroll said after the race

The entire situation seems to have caused a lot of frustration to Ricciardo as he was in the top 10 before it. Stroll was penalized with a 10-second penalty after the incident, whereas the Australian had his race ended early because of the massive damage due to the collision with Stroll’s AMR24.

Daniel Ricciardo shares his thoughts on collision with Lance Stroll

Daniel Ricciardo has been struggling to get into a rhythm since the start of the season and has had a massive streak of bad luck which hasn’t allowed him to maximize his results for VCARB. But, during the Chinese GP weekend, the 8-time Grand Prix winner finally seemed to be comfortable with RB’s 2024 challenger.

Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO).
Daniel Ricciardo (Via Imago)

The driver’s bad luck continued though as once he was hit in the rear by Lance Stroll, he sustained a lot of damage which led him to retire from the car. Following the race, the Australian shared his thoughts on the collision between the pair.

Its a restart, so we don’t know what the leader will do. And, you need to be prepared for anything. I saw it bunching up, and I saw how hard he hit me. It wasn’t like a small lapse of judgement. I saw his onboard, and he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking at the apex. I don’t know what he was looking at unless, he’s eyes do a funny thing. It was a blow for our weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo after the race

The 34-year-old was visibly frustrated with how his weekend ended and added how he was very annoyed with the collision as it ruined his entire weekend. But, Ricciardo was at least quick throughout the weekend and thus, would want to bring the same level of performance during the upcoming races weekends.

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