Daniel Ricciardo walks away from huge shunt in F1 Styrian GP FP2

Daniel Ricciardo has been cleared to race in the Styrian Grand Prix after suffering a huge crash during second free practice for the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

The Australian was on a hot lap in the early stages of the session when he lost the rear of the Renault mid-way around the fast Turn 9 penultimate corner, sending him backwards into the barriers in a hard shunt.

After getting himself out of the heavily damaged car, he was shown limping his way to the medical car and taken to the medical centre

Renault has since confirmed he has been passed OK for the remainder of the weekend.

Update on Daniel: After that impact, he went to the medical centre for a check up. Medical delegate has declared him fit.#RSspirit #AustrianGP

— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) July 10, 2020

He isn’t the first driver to contend with tricky grip levels as temperatures rise at the Red Bull Ring with others complaining of ‘snapping’ mid corner, while a number of drivers having lap times deleted for running too wide across the kerbs outside the limits.

With Ricciardo’s day done, he could find himself pegged to the back of the grid if FP2 becomes the de facto qualifying session amid forecasts that could well result in tomorrow’s track running being washed out entirely. Though weather changes quickly in the mountainous regions, it is anticipated that heavy rain will fall throughout the day and could last into Sunday morning to put paid to plans to run the qualifying session then too.

If so that will be a blow to the Australian's chances on Sunday having made it through to the top ten in qualifying during the Austrian Grand Prix, even if technical issues prevented him from scoring in the race.