Daniel Ricciardo has been given a three-place grid drop for the upcoming Miami weekend after the stewards deemed he breached the Safety Car regulations during the Chinese Grand Prix.
RB driver Ricciardo ended Sunday’s race on the sidelines after being hit by Aston Martin rival Lance Stroll before a Safety Car restart, with the significant damage sustained on the rear of his car forcing him into retirement.
However, Ricciardo was then called to see the stewards post-race over a separate incident involving the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, with the Australian ultimately found guilty of passing the German while running behind the Safety Car.
The stewards consulted both drivers and team representatives, and also reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence before making the call and explaining their decision.
“The driver of Car 3 [Ricciardo] admitted that he overtook Car 27 [Hulkenberg] deliberately, but he explained that he felt that he could do so because Car 27 had overtaken him under Safety Car before on lap 28,” read the panel’s statement. “We note that Car 27 was permitted to overtake Car 3 on lap 28 because of Article 55.8.
“There was no justifiable basis for Car 3 to overtake Car 27 while the race was under Safety Car conditions. We accordingly imposed a 10-second time penalty on Car 3.
“As Car 3 was unable to serve the penalty due to retirement, we imposed a three-grid place penalty to Car 3 for the next race in which the driver participates.”
That means Ricciardo, who also picked up two penalty points, will take the grid drop for the Sprint during the next round of the season at the Miami International Autodrome.
