Daniel Ricciardo inherited third at the Mexican Grand Prix, a position the Australian felt he deserved.
He finished fifth on track but his teammate, Max Verstappen, was handed a five-second penalty immediately after the race for cutting the first chicane and gaining an advantage then, after Vettel and Ricciardo were pulled into the stewards office for a consultation about Vettel’s defending in Turn 4, Ricciardo found himself upto third as the German was handed a 10-second penalty.
Vettel had been riled up by Verstappen cutting the chicane and maintaining position, as it saw him slipping back into the clutches of Ricciardo.
On the run to Turn 4, Vettel defended on the outside, leaving racing room for Ricciardo to make a move on the inside of the Ferrari. But the Australian was gently squeezed until the pair made light contact in the braking zone. This caused the Red Bull driver to lock up which ruined his tyres for the last three laps and lost him any chance to re-attack.
Vettel was deemed to have made an ‘abnormal change of direction’ under braking that was considered ‘potentially dangerous’ by the stewards and his time penalty dropped the German down to fifth as Ricciardo and Verstappen gained a position.
The Australian initially was a bit disappointed with fourth as he believed a podium finish was possible, but his main thought from the race was his confusion over the way penalties were handed out.
Twitter: “It means 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship, I’m quite proud of that this year.” @danielricciardo #MexicoGP reaction… https://t.co/GkDykoritY (@redbullracing)
Before the decisions, Ricciardo had been very vocal both against Vettel, for his actions that were later penalised, and Lewis Hamilton for his actions at the start.
The Briton had a good start but locked his tyre into Turn 1 and cut the first chicane. This gave him about a large advantage on second-placed Nico Rosberg as the cars filtered through the first three turns.
Hamilton was never penalised for this move, however, from Ricciardo’s point of view, it appeared inconsistent and confusing that the Mercedes was not penalised when Verstappen was for technically doing the same thing.
“To be honest also I didn’t understand the start,” the Australian told Sky. “How you can be leading the race, defend, lock your wheels and go off track, and still stay in the lead.
“I think Lewis deserved a penalty. I think anyone in that position deserves a penalty.
“I saw Max cut the chicane trying to defend Seb, he got a penalty. So I don’t know, to be honest, how was that different with his move and Lewis’.
“I don’t know, for me if you lock up the brakes and cut the corner, it’s a mistake, you have to pay the price.”
Ricciardo was very critical of Sebastian Vettel also, as he felt the German driver deserved a penalty. Vettel did eventually receive this penalty, three hours after the race.
Ricciardo claimed that Vettel moved under braking to hold his then fourth position in the race, something that many drivers – especially Vettel – had been very outspoken about when Verstappen made moves like this.
“I felt that Seb did what everyone has been complaining about lately, moving under braking,” Ricciardo said. “He’s smiling now… I don’t know, for me, he doesn’t deserve to be up there with that move he pulled.
“I saw he defended half way down the straight, I was going to go to the outside, and then it just looked like he opened it so I committed to the inside.
“I thought I had every right to be there, and then he just kept closing the door under braking. I locked the brakes trying to avoid contact, but he just kept closing so, in the end, I had nowhere to go. I was frustrated with that.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love racing, I love racing hard, I love seeing locking brakes and even a bit of contact is fine. But this whole moving under braking, if you’re going to defend, you commit early and that’s it.
“You don’t do it once you’ve already been outfoxed. I feel like that’s what I did today; Seb was there, he moved, I went, I won the chess match if you like.
“And then he’s like ‘oh, I screwed up, and now I’m going to try and repair my mistake’. For me, that’s not right.”
After the penalty was handed to Vettel and promoted Ricciardo to the podium, he released this statement from Red Bull: “Sure I want to race and having penalties after the race isn’t ideal, but I did feel today that it was called for. I committed to the move and he squeezed me.
“Racing should be tough and l don’t expect being waved through but we talked about the moving under braking and that’s on paper now.
“The only thing I’m disappointed about is not to be in the stadium in that moment but the podium is still up so I’ll go and have a few photos with the guys.”
Ricciardo felt he should have been on the bottom step of the podium after the moves that Verstappen and Vettel pulled, and with the post-race penalties taken into account, clearly the Australian feels he received what he deserved.
