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Ricciardo thought ex-teammate 'wanted to punch' him after Monza clash
It was a weekend to forget for Daniel Riccardo and VCARB at the Italian Grand Prix. The race went downhill for The Honey Badger almost instantly, as he collided with former Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg after an opportunistic move on lap one. After the race in Monza, Ricciardo spoke about the incident in the paddock, revealing how he apologised to the German.
The Australian was slapped with two penalties, which removed any opportunity for points, whilst teammate Yuki Tsunoda had to retire with floor damage. The first five seconds came from his collision with Hulkenberg's Haas. A second came after VCARB's front jackman touched the car too early while he was serving his penalty, resulting in a further 10-second punishment for failing to serve the first correctly.
'Curious' after clash: 'I didn't know if he wanted to punch my face in'
Speaking to GPblog and others in the paddock of the 'Temple of speed', Ricciardo explained the clash from his perspective, admitting he wondered whether or not Hulkenberg was angered by the collision: "Obviously, I didn't give him enough room, period. The least I can do is apologise. I was also curious about how bad was it. I knew I was in the wrong, but was it like something that he (Hulkenberg) wanted to punch my face in or was it something that he was just like, ‘Yeah, you misjudged it by 10 centimetres'," Ricciardo explained. The pair were good friends at Renault (Now Alpine) in their relatively successful partnership in 2019 and 2020.
The Australian also pointed out how the start of races has been a weakness for him this year. "I had struggled on first laps this year. Big picture, I don't think I'd really gain many positions at all on lap one. So up until that point, it was going okay, and whilst I think being a bit more aggressive, which I think I'd lacked, but then maybe I was having too much fun being aggressive and I got too aggressive. I joke about it, but obviously, I need to judge those things better," he said honestly.
Ricciardo: 'Was I being a bit of a pr*ck? It was pretty aggressive'
So, after the incident, how did Ricciardo;'s chat with Hulkenberg pan out? "It was okay. Look, I obviously, firstly, I apologise. And then I asked how bad it was. And obviously, he said, ‘Yeah, you didn't give me enough room.’ I also wanted to ask, ‘Did I kind of jerk across, or did I just quite progressively move across?’ I like to be aggressive, but I'm not dirty. So I wanted to make sure from his point of view, was it just aggressive? Or was I being a bit of a prick? But I believe it was pretty aggressive, elbows were a little too wide. So yeah, I apologise." Ricciardo concluded.
The eight-time Grand Prix winner finished in 13th after all of his Italian Grand Prix drama. Ricciardo will be looking to put in some good performances over the next few weeks in order to still be in with the chance of a seat on the 2025 grid, which is still yet to be confirmed.
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