LE CASTELLET, France — Daniel Ricciardo has been demoted to 11th in the final classification at the French Grand Prix after being penalised for abusing track limits in two last lap overtakes.
Ricciardo finished seventh on the road, but only after a late lunge on Lando Norris approaching the Mistral chicane on the final lap and a follow up move on Kimi Raikkonen.
He went around the outside of the McLaren at Turn 8, running wide and off the track, before returning just before the apex and pushing Norris wide in Turn 9. Raikkonen, who was just behind, took advantage and emerged ahead of both Ricciardo and Norris, but on the following straight, Ricciardo went off the track to get the inside line for Signes and retook seventh place from the Alfa Romeo driver.
The stewards took a dim view of both incidents and gave him two five-second penalties, dropping him to 11th in the final race standings.
In a tweet that was quickly deleted, Ricciardo said: « No regrets. I tried. Would rather that than sit back without a heart. »
He then followed up with this message.
I am a threat of a twitter rant. But I’ll save it. Hope everyone was entertained. https://t.co/ENMyBr3HdH
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) June 23, 2019
He later posted to Instagram: « We should’ve had another doublt points finish today. S— happens. The team did great. Sorry for them they deserved better. I like to race. Racing is fun. No regrets. Bring on Austria. Schnitzels and all. I want it. »
The verdict of the Norris incident read: « The Stewards reviewed video evidence and on-board video from multiple cars, heard from the driver of car 3 (Daniel Ricciardo), the driver of car 4 (Lando Norris), the driver of car 7 (Kimi Raikkonen) and team representatives.
« Ricciardo started to pass Norris on the outside at turn 8. At the exit of the corner he distinctly left the track and the Stewards determined that he rejoined at an angle that forced Norris off the track to avoid the collision.
« The Stewards accepted Ricciardo’s explanation that when he was rejoining the track, he had slowed considerably, going down extra gears and locking up the front left tyre. He also stated that the rumble strips in the turn made the car more difficult to control. However, the Stewards considered that the sequence of events constituted rejoining the track unsafely, and he subsequently took the position from Norris. »
In reference to the Raikkonen incident, the stewards added: « Following the incident at turn 8 with Norris, Raikkonen managed to pass both Norris and Ricciardo. Ricciardo, who by then had regained control of his car then chased Raikkonen from turn 9 and subsequently passed Raikkonen. Raikkonen defended his position on the straight moving slightly to the right.
« However, Raikkonen never put any part of his car off the track and he did not make any move to the right while any part of Ricciardo’s car was alongside, and did not crowd Ricciardo off the track. To make the pass Ricciardo drove off track and then subsequently completed the pass, gaining a lasting advantage.
« The Stewards reviewed the case to see if it was a continuation of the previous incident. However, Ricciardo clearly had regained control of the car following his incident with Norris and the pass off track was a separate incident. »
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/27037987/two-penalties-demote-ricciardo-points
