F1 China GP: Daniel Ricciardo forced to retire mid-race in Chinese Grand Prix
As he fights to save his Formula One career, Daniel Ricciardo has said what he thinks of the contact that ruined his best chance of finishing in the points this season.
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Shattered Daniel Ricciardo can’t take a trick, forced to retire midway through the Chinese Grand Prix as he fights to save his F1 career.
Ricciardo had driven his way from 12th to ninth in the Shanghai event before he got slammed into by Lance Stroll in an Aston Martin as the race was about to restart after a lengthy safety car period.
Ricciardo had to slam on his brakes as the line of cars arrived at the hairpin, narrowly pulling up short of fellow Australian Oscar Piastri, only for the queue of cars behind to pile up and slam into his rear end.
The collision forced Ricciardo’s car to lift into the air and bump into Piastri - who struggled for pace thereafter as well in his McLaren.
The fan-favourite was furious with Stroll refusing to take responsibity for the collision, which ruined his chance of finishing in the points for the first time this season.
He walked through the pit garage with his head down after exiting the car, clearly frustrated at the way his first promising weekend of the season had ended through no fault of his own.
“Maybe in an hour, when he sees it, he might take some accountability. But if he doesn’t, I can’t help him, nor can anyone here,” Ricciardo said.
“It’s so frustrating. Obviously, racing incidents happen, but behind a safety car, that should never happen.
“What made my blood boil is I watched his onboard, to just see it from his perspective.
“And as soon as we start braking, you can see his helmet turn right and he’s looking at the apex of turn 14, he’s not even watching me. And then when he looks back, he’s in the back of me.
“I don’t know what he’s doing, where his head is, but all he has to do is worry about me in that situation, and he clearly wasn’t. Let’s see what he says in the media, but if he comes after me, then I’ll say more.”
Stroll’s radio comments further angered Ricciardo, which seemed as if he was blaming the Aussie for the accident.
“I’d slowly started to calm down, and then I was told what Lance thinks of the incident. Apparently, I’m an idiot, and it was my fault. That made my blood boil, because it’s clear as day and it’s also behind a safety car.
“I’m doing my best not to say what I want to say, but f*** that guy. And I’m being nice, too! But if that’s what he thinks...”
It was later clarified that Stroll did not direct the “idiot” gibe towards Ricciardo specifically. “Everyone just slammed on the brakes and he was the guy in front of me,” Stroll said.
“So I don’t think he slammed on the brakes, it was a concertina effect.”
Stroll was handed a 10-second penalty by race stewards for the collision.
“Unbelievable, such a joke,” he said as he served his penalty.
Piastri held on to finish eighth as Max Verstappen extended his series lead with a dominant victory ahead of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez.
Lance Stroll slammed into Daniel Ricciardo just before the SC restart 😳pic.twitter.com/R37TS7maIY
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) April 21, 2024
While he has shown more pace than Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda this Grand Prix weekend, the 34-year-old is in the fight of his life to save his career.
Crucially for Ricciardo not only did he out-qualify Tsunoda, he showed enough race pace to pass him after the Japanese driver under cut him with a better pit stop strategy.
While Ricciardo was in the top 10 for the race restart, he was one of two drivers in the points who were still required to definitely make one more pit stop in the race.
Tsunoda retired from the Chinese Grand Prix after a collision with Kevin Magnussen shortly after the same restart and like Ricciardo, it was an incident that was not his fault.
VERSTAPPEN CLAIMS POLE AFTER ROMPING TO CHINESE GP SPRINT WIN
Triple world champion Max Verstappen took pole position on Saturday for the Chinese Grand Prix, 0.322 seconds ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso third.
Verstappen clocked a fastest lap of 1min 33.660sec to cap a perfect day after earlier cruising to a sprint race victory at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“The car worked even better in qualifying,” said Verstappen, who recorded the Red Bull team’s 100th pole position and his first in China.
“That final lap felt pretty decent and very happy to drive here in the dry, it was a lot of fun.”
Lando Norris will start on the second row in his McLaren alongside Alonso for Sunday’s race, the first grand prix to be held in China since 2019 because of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
Oscar Piastri was fifth fastest in the second McLaren ahead of the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with George Russell’s Mercedes eighth.
Perez only got through to Q2 on his final flying lap and was relieved to be on the front row.
“Very intense, I nearly got knocked out in Q1,” said the Mexican. “Unfortunately in the end just not enough to get Max, but it was a tremendous team result.” It was a dominant day for the Dutchman who overcame electrical gremlins to blast from fourth on the grid to an emphatic victory in the morning sprint, 13 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The win increased his championship lead over teammate Perez to 25 points.
- Joy to despair -
But Hamilton’s joy at coming second in the sprint turned to despair in the first qualifying stint when the Englishman locked up near the end of his final flying lap, relegating him to only 18th fastest.
It was the first time since the 2022 Saudi Grand Prix that the seven-time world champion had been knocked out in Q1.
“I made massive changes into qualifying,” said Hamilton who won the last Chinese Grand Prix five years ago.
“It wasn’t too bad in some places. I couldn’t stop in turn 14. It is what it is. “This morning George (Russell) and I had very similar cars, but this afternoon we were trying to experiment still with the car so I went one way and he went the other.” Sainz is the only driver to win a grand prix apart from Verstappen in 2024 and he survived a huge scare in Q2.
The Spaniard ran wide at the final bend and spun across the start-finish straight to lose his nose cone in the barriers.
It brought out the red flags, but Sainz was able to limp back to the pits for repairs before emerging when the session restarted to clock the third-fastest time and make it to the top 10 shootout.
On the first Chinese Grand Prix weekend since 2019, huge crowds turned out to see Shanghai native Zhou Guanyu, China’s first Formula One driver, make his home debut in his third season in the premier racing class.
Tickets for Sunday’s main race sold out in minutes and fans had plenty to cheer Friday when Zhou propelled his Sauber into the top 10 in a wet sprint qualifying session.
But he narrowly missed out on scoring a point after finishing ninth in Saturday morning’s sprint.
And in the afternoon, as at the previous four grands prix this season, Zhou failed to make it out of Q1, finishing 16th by just four one hundredths of a second.
SAINZ IN A SPIN
Carlos Sainz has produced one of the bouncebacks of the Formula 1 season after a crashing out of the last corner in qualifying, only to return and post the third fastest time of the session.
The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez produced the two fastest times of the session, but all eyes were on Sainz after his crash on the last corner.
Sainz took the corner far too wide, sending his Ferrari into the gravel and losing traction, which sent him across the track and into the wall in front of the packed stands.
The session was red-flagged with just under seven minutes left, and the Spaniard, who had yet to post a time, was not only able to get his Ferrari back to the garage, but fixed.
He was one of the last drivers of the session to post a time, and it was good enough to be the third fastest in the session.
Australian driver Oscar Piastri was eighth-fastest with McLaren teammate Lando Norris ninth.
Daniel Ricciardo was 12th.
VESTAPPEN WINS SPRINT FROM FOURTH
Max Verstappen overcame electrical gremlins to blast from fourth to an emphatic win in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint on Saturday, 13 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman charged past the seven-time world champ Hamilton’s Mercedes on lap nine of the 19-lap dash.
Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was third after a thrilling battle with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
“The first few laps were hectic,” said Verstappen after claiming the eight points on offer at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“The wind is changing a lot, which makes it difficult to drive. Once we sorted (the
battery) out we were OK,”
Verstappen added as he extended his championship lead to 25 points over Perez.
Leclerc and Sainz ended up fourth and fifth after swapping places numerous times in the tussle for the minor places.
Aston Martin’s Alonso came out worst as he went wheel to wheel with the Ferraris, having to retire on lap 18 with a puncture.
Lando Norris started from pole but could only cross the line sixth in his McLaren, ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, with George Russell eighth to round out the sprint points scorers.
Daniel Ricciardo was 11th.
“That’s the best result I’ve had in a long time, so I’m super happy and grateful,” said an ecstatic Hamilton, who picked up seven points having scored only 10 in the four previous races this season.
“We couldn’t fight the Red Bulls. The race was tough but I found out a lot about the car through this short stint, so I’m excited for the race tomorrow.”
It was the first of six sprints on the bumper 24-race Formula One calendar in 2024, and the first where the new weekend format was used.
RICCIARDO’S MINOR WIN AT SHANGHAI
Daniel Ricciardo has had an early win in an important Chinese Grand Prix as countryman Oscar Piastri bagged another top 10 start.
McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton to pole position on Friday for the Chinese GP sprint race as rain played havoc with qualifying in Shanghai.
Fernando Alonso in an Aston Martin was third, with championship leader Max Verstappen fourth.
Ricciardo qualified 14th fastest, and while he would’ve had preferred to be among the top 10, he managed to qualify five positions faster than teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
There is enormous pressure on Ricciardo to turn his fortunes around, and a solid weekend in Shanghai will go a long way to securing his future.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez was sixth, splitting the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who survived a spin on the wet track.
Hamilton was briefly on top when Norris’s quickest lap of 1min 57.940sec on intermediate wet tyres was deleted for breaching track limits, only to be reinstated by stewards a minute later.
A big crowd at the Shanghai International Circuit let out a huge roar when hometown hero Zhou Guanyu qualified 10th.
Australian Piastri was eighth in his McLaren, just hours after he was second-fastest during the only practice session, and Zhou’s teammate Valtteri Bottas ninth to round out the top 10 on the grid for Saturday’s 19-lap shootout.
“It was tricky, you are always nervous going into a session like this. You just have to risk a lot, push and build tyre temperature and what not,” said Norris.
“I’m happy, sad it’s not for a proper qualifying, but good enough.
“You only get three laps. The first two I aborted on both, so it was all or nothing, a good position for tomorrow.”
Saturday’s sprint will be followed by qualifying to set the grid for Sunday’s 56-lap grand prix, the first in China since 2019
PRACTICE
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was quickest in first and only practice for the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with championship leader Max Verstappen third.
Canadian Stroll took advantage of a rapidly quickening track at the end of the 60-minute session and some upgrades to his car to record a blistering lap of 1min 36.302sec, beating Piastri by 0.327sec, with the Red Bull of Verstappen 0.031sec further back.
The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was fourth in Shanghai followed by the much-improved Haas pair, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, who benefited from significant upgrades to their cars.
A big surprise was Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who could only finish 13th and 14th respectively in their Ferraris, almost two seconds off the pace.
Formula One is back in China for the first time in five years with a packed programme including a Saturday sprint race and the sport’s first Chinese driver on the grid in Zhou Guanyu.
It meant the morning’s practice session was the only preparation time ahead of sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon.
But five minutes were lost to an early red flag when grass at the side of the track caught fire and had to be extinguished by marshals.
Local hero Zhou was a five-year-old spectator at the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix in 2004 and huge cheers erupted as he emerged from the pit lane in his bright green Sauber for his home debut.
Zhou thrilled the crowd with a competitive lap to place 11th, ahead of both Ferraris and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hamilton won the last race in Shanghai in 2019, one of his record six victories at the circuit, but he limped around on hard tyres to 18th place, just behind Russell and two and a half seconds off the time of Stroll.
Verstappen has not yet won in Shanghai, but arrived having won 50 per cent of all races since the last Chinese race in 2019.
Most of the action came in the last few minutes of the session as the track, not raced on for half a decade, rubbered in.
Alex Albon’s Williams surprisingly set the pace with 1min 37.158sec on a qualifying simulation run with five minutes to go, before being relegated to eighth.
The sprint weekend has a new format this season.
Sprint qualifying that used to take place on Saturday morning is now the second session on Friday.
The sprint race will be the first action on Saturday followed by normal qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix.
The changes mean teams will be able to adjust their car set-ups after the sprint race for GP qualifying, which wasn’t allowed previously.
“I do think that the new sprint format is better, it gives you also more opportunity to work on the car,” said Verstappen.
“It seems all a bit more logical.”
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