F1 2020: Daniel Ricciardo slams Lance Stroll’s ‘desperate’ move at Styrian GP

Daniel Ricciardo plummeted down the standings after being forced off track at the Styrian GP — and he’s demanding answers.

Daniel Ricciardo had a hectic weekend. (Photo by Darko Bandic/Pool via Getty Images)

Daniel Ricciardo has vented his frustration after a “desperate” overtake by Lance Stroll on the penultimate lap of the Styrian GP saw him drop to eighth place.

The Aussie held fifth for a significant portion of the race before starting to fade, but he was still in sixth when Stroll — perhaps feeling pressure from McLaren’s Lando Norris who was closing on both of them — dove up the inside at turn three and forced Ricciardo off track.

Norris ended up jumping from eighth to fifth, while Stroll finished ahead of Ricciardo in seventh.

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Ricciardo called for a penalty against Stroll but stewards weren’t accommodating, adding to his anger.

“Firstly he didn’t really get past, he forced both of us off the track,” Ricciardo said to Sky Sports F1.

“I’ll always be critical of myself and I should of closed the door but I don’t think he was ever making the move so I think it was desperate.

Stewards are looking at the Stroll/Ricciardo incident at Turn 3. #F1 #StyrianGP #NotTheAustrianGP #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/dG8gcUj63G

— Jeff Pappone 🇨🇦 (@jpappone) July 12, 2020

“I think Lando was coming and I think he had to do something otherwise Lando was going to eat him up. I take the apex and we crash, so that is a frustrating end and we lost a position to Lando.

“I think we’ll get the one back on Stroll but it still doesn’t really … it’s a bit of a shame to lose the race like that.”

“If he pushes me off but he stays on the track then that’s fair enough, then I definitely should have blocked,” he added. “But if he takes both of us off then it’s not a move. I’m turning out of the apex to avoid a crash. Again, as I said, I should have hugged the white line and blocked from earlier but it was a move he was never making.”

Stroll disagreed. “I was catching Ricciardo but I spent the whole second stint really trying to get a good run on him but he was very strong into Turn 1 and out of Turn 1,” he said.

“That made it very challenging for me to get by and finally I saw an opportunity. It was a very small one and I went for it. It turned out to be really hectic last lap, but a very exciting for everyone.”

Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle said “Ricciardo got Ricciardo’d by Lance Stroll”.

Daniel Ricciardo trailing teammate Esteban Ocon early in the race. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

It was another wild weekend for Renault as Ricciardo crashed in qualifying before teammate Estaban Ocon was forced to pull out of the race with the same cooling issues that plagued the Aussie last week.

“The first part was OK, on the medium (tyre) we were quite strong,” Ricciardo said. “And then with the soft, we had a few other issues and then the soft wasn’t really working as well as we would have liked. But I thought we were doing well to hold on to Lance but then with two laps to go it fell apart a little bit.”

Ricciardo also had trouble earlier in the race while trying to overtake and unwilling Ocon. The Aussie star crept up on his younger teammate but was turned away over three laps, which cost him time.

It was in stark contrast to McLaren, where Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were caught in a skirmish but Sainz let the faster Norris through.

Brundle said the lack of co-operation at Renault was “crazy”. “McLaren were smarter in that situation because there Daniel Ricciardo had the longer running tyres, clearly had the pace, and Esteban Ocon was fighting him for all he was worth, as if it was the last lap of a Grand Prix,” Brundle said.

“I think it cost them both time in the end. They’re so close in the midfield the lot of them that they’re going to have to work as a team.”

Daniel Ricciardo. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)