Ricciardo facing surgery after breaking wrist in F1 practice crash

Daniel Ricciardo has flown to Barcelona for possible surgery after breaking his hand in Dutch Grand Prix practice and could be out of action for several races of the Formula 1 season.

The experienced Australian, who had been preparing for his third race with AlphaTauri after making a comeback as replacement for dropped Dutch driver Nyck de Vries, crashed in Friday’s second session at Zandvoort.

“He’s headed off today to Barcelona, they may even have a little operation on him tomorrow to just tidy up where that break is,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports television of Ricciardo’s next steps.

Barcelona-based MotoGP traumatology specialist Javier Mir is renowned for his work and operated on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll when the Canadian broke his wrists before the start of the season.

Stroll was able to race in Bahrain two weeks later.

“It’s quite a clean break and then of course it’s all about the recuperation and how long that takes. Any normal human being would probably be about 10-12 weeks but we know that these guys aren’t normal,” said Horner.

Daniel Ricciardo broke his wrist in a crash during a practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix.Credit: Getty

“So it will all be about the recovery process ... is it going to be three weeks, is it a month, is it six weeks? Nobody really knows.”

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza would appear to be a non-starter, coming the weekend after Zandvoort, with Singapore on September 17 and Japan on September 24.

Ricciardo, in just his third grand prix since earning a drive with the Red Bull-backed outfit, fractured his left hand when he drove into a tyre wall at Zandvoort on Friday in an attempt to avoid running headlong into fellow Australian driver Oscar Piastri’s stricken McLaren after the rookie had just crashed moments earlier.

The incident left Piastri reflecting that Ricciardo’s actions may have prevented an even more serious incident.

Ricciardo immediately nurses his injury as he walks from his Scuderia AlphaTauricar after the crash on Dutch track.Credit: Getty

“If you’re coming into that corner, it’s blind, so maybe he saw me too late and turned to the wall instead of into me. So if he did, thank you,” said the Melbourne rookie.

The two Australians were able to clamber out of their cars after their accidents but the 34-year-old Ricciardo had difficulty extricating himself because his hand had still been on the steering wheel as he hit the wall.

He had to be treated in hospital before his team reported: “An X-ray confirmed he sustained a break to a metacarpal on his left hand, and this injury will not allow him to continue his duties, so he will be replaced by the team’s reserve driver Liam Lawson for the remainder of this weekend.”

It marks a big opportunity for New Zealander Lawson, a 21-year-old from Hastings who will be making his Formula One debut.

Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri is removed from the track after the crash in the practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix.Credit: Reuters

Piastri, who has replaced Ricciardo at the British team this season, had lost control on the famed banked turn three 10 minutes into the second practice, his car spinning into the barriers.

Ricciardo had been powering around on the same line and, despite a warning yellow flag, also swerved into the wall, hitting the brakes after seemingly only glimpsing the McLaren late.

With the session red-flagged, Ricciardo was left cursing twice as he radioed in to his team, complaining of his hand injury.

Both of their cars had to be hauled off the circuit by cranes, with Piastri apologising to his team as he explained the car was too damaged for him to return to the pits.

The 22-year-old Piastri, who had been a test driver at Alpine last year, has impressed as Australia’s newest F1 star, having agreed to take Ricciardo’s seat at McLaren in controversial circumstances last season in a move which outraged the French team.

But the experienced Ricciardo has enjoyed an impressive two-race comeback with the Red Bull “second team”, AlphaTauri.

The session resumed 15 minutes after the crash, with Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris going on to finish fastest – even more of a frustration for the Australian, who had been hoping for an impressive start to the resumption of McLaren’s ever-improving season after the summer break.

“I just went in a little bit hot, tried to turn in a bit aggressively and unfortunately found the wall,” said Piastri.

“I guess it (his first significant F1 crash) was gonna happen at some stage. Of course, you never want it to, but I was just pushing a little bit too hard and, around here, especially in that corner, you pay a big consequence.”

Norris was fractionally ahead of home favourite and runaway championship leader Max Verstappen, who had topped the morning timesheets and looks in fine shape to take a ninth win in a row on Sunday in front of his adoring home fans to equal now-retired Sebastian Vettel’s decade-old record of consecutive victories.

Norris clocked 1 minute 11.330 seconds around the 4.259-kilometre circuit to narrowly beat champion Verstappen by 0.023.

AAP, Reuters

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