“So shocking how he [tried to] overtake,” Yuki Tsunoda fumes over Daniel Ricciardo collision that led to his retirement from the Mexican GP
Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda was running in 11th place before a collision with Daniel Ricciardo on lap 51 put an end to that. The Australian had tried to sneak his way through turn 6, but he was right beside Tsunoda, and they made contact, in which the AlphaTauri lifted over the wheels of the McLaren. The Japanese driver had to retire from the damage.
Yuki Tsunoda was certainly not happy with what Daniel Ricciardo did (something he got a 10-second penalty for), and made his displeasure clear. As per The Race, he said: “Such a shame, until then [the race] was super good. So shocking how he [tried to] overtake. Almost impossible, he just sent it and [my] car [was] damaged. I don’t know if he had damage but pretty shocking. So frustrating.”
While Tsunoda retired, Ricciardo went on to finish P7, which is quite the result for him, considering he beat his teammate Lando Norris, which he has often struggled to do this season. While Tsunoda would obviously have seen it as an overtake attempt, the ‘Honey Badger’ clarified that it wasn’t his intention.
Daniel Ricciardo feels differently from Yuki Tsunoda
Daniel Ricciardo was given a 10-second penalty for the collision, which he thought was ‘more than enough’. He does not feel that the incident was completely his fault: “I’ve seen a few replays. I’ll take more of the responsibility but it’s certainly I don’t feel 100-0 in terms of my fault. I didn’t lock, I stayed on the apex.”
He further clarified that he did not try to overtake Yuki Tsunoda, but instead was just looking for a better exit: “Truth is I didn’t plan or want to overtake him there. I just thought if I stay there, all the grip’s on the inside of that corner, it’s very dusty, so I thought if I could just stay there, keep him a bit on the dirty line, I’ll get a better exit.”
Daniel Ricciardo even wanted to plead his case on the radio, but instead chose to stay nothing. Eventually, he got a good result despite the penalty, and an important one in McLaren’s battle with Alpine for P4.
Soham Raj Jain
(480 Articles Published)