Ewan Gale
Saturday, September 25, 2021 4:44 PM – Updated: 5:17 PM
Daniel Ricciardo was reprimanded and McLaren received an official warning after it was discovered that the Australian had interfered with Lance Stroll while qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo found himself on an early slowdown lap in wet conditions in Sochi and was warned of teammate Lando Norris approaching him.
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After Ricciardo let the future pole sitter pass, he returned to the racing line and blocked Aston Martin driver Stroll.
Both drivers got through from the session despite the incident. Ricciardo will now start from fifth and Stroll from eighth.
A stewards report read: “The driver of car 3 [Ricciardo] was on a slowdown lap and was warned by the McLaren team that his teammate was approaching.
“Rear visibility was compromised by the wet conditions and the driver of Car 3 was unaware of the approach of Car 18 [Stroll] and in the opinion of the stewards would not have been able to see the approach until the last moment anyway.
“This was made worse by the spray from Car 4 that had just passed Car 3.
“The competitor [McLaren F1 Team] admitted that it made a false assumption that Car 18 was on a slow lap after having just finished a fast lap, but in fact it was doing fast laps in a row due to the improvement [but wet] Track conditions.
“It therefore did not inform the driver of the presence of car 18. The commissioners noted that as soon as the driver of car 3 learned of the presence of car 18, he immediately took action to leave the line.
“The stewards have compared this situation to any other debilitating case over the past two and a half seasons.
“The stewards believed that this bordered on ‘unnecessary obstruction’ and was therefore a violation of the rules and therefore required a penalty.
“But given all the circumstances, a reprimand was thought to be the most appropriate and consistent punishment.
“However, the McLaren team clearly made a mistake by not closely monitoring the traffic behind Car 3, so an official warning will be given to the competitor stating that a similar mistake could result in additional money or money in the future Competitor could result in another penalty for the driver [and the relevant driver]. “
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