Ricciardo apologies to Kvyat for ‘panic’ clash

Daniel Ricciardo has apologised to Daniil Kvyat for triggering their freak collision during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which forced both drivers out of the race and landed the Australian with a three-place grid drop for the next round.

The Renault driver had been attacking Kvyat for position on Lap 32 of the Baku race but disaster struck as he attempted a dive up the inside into Turn 4 but missed his braking point which saw the Australian run off track and force the Toro Rosso driver wide.

With Ricciardo in “a bit of panic” to get back on track, he reversed into Kvyat with the damage from the hit ultimately retiring both cars later in the race. Ricciardo has been slapped with a three-place grid penalty for causing the collision which he has apologised for.

“I don’t feel good about what happened. It was weird, I know what happened but at the time it was looking quite good for us we were starting to pick up the pace,” Ricciardo explained after the race. “I was closing in on Daniil and I saw a gap so I thought I’ll have a go.

“It was always tight into Turn 4 but was committed enough to pull it off but then I started to lock at miss the corner. Then as soon as I went down the escape road it was a sense or urgency and a bit of panic to minimise damage by losing as little time as possible.

“I found reverse and started going but to be honest I had no idea he was there. I guess the urgency stopped me from looking, but when I went long I thought he was have cut back and stayed on track. I just tried to minimise the mistake but that turned into another mistake.

“It was crappy on my part and I feel bad for the team and for Daniil as it was not cool. I felt the team deserved more than that as there were positives with the pace but it was not the way I wanted to end it.

“I feel pretty small at the moment. It was a silly mistake and a bit of panic.”

Kvyat accepted Ricciardo’s apology and put it down to a racing incident, despite seeing a third consecutive race majorly compromised by an on-track collision, after being hit by Antonio Giovinazzi in Bahrain and coming together with both McLaren drivers on the opening lap in China.

“These things happen, it is racing,” Kvyat said. “I was a bit disappointed in the moment but now what can I do about it? There was potential for a point or two which I would have taken and the team deserved because yesterday in qualifying our car was great.

“Today we had a bit of tyre management issue. We move on to the next one. We have a strong package so I am sure I’ll time will come.

“Daniel’s pace was a bit quicker than ours but the race was long here so I was hoping our race would come towards the end. Unfortunately it ended there so we don’t know how it would have went.”

Ricciardo will go into next month’s Spanish Grand Prix with a three-place grid penalty.