Reuters
Formula One F1 – Hungarian Grand Prix – Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary – August 1, 2021 McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in action after a collision with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc REUTERS/David W Cerny
Reuters
Formula One F1 – Hungarian Grand Prix – Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary – August 1, 2021 McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in action after a collision with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc REUTERS/David W Cerny
Daniel Ricciardo probably had big hopes going into Sunday’s main event at Hungaroring. The Australian lined up just outside the top 10 and also had a decent getaway at lights out. But by the time he crossed turn 1, his race was pretty much over.
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Lance Stroll, who was on the inside of turn 1, lost control of his car, ran over the kerbs, and straight into Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque was just a passenger throughout the event, as his Ferrari slid into Ricciardo, who then ended up spinning and facing the opposite direction.
Of course, the blame does land on Stroll. However, to Ricciardo’s eyes, all he could see was a red Ferrari, and he consequently assumed it was Leclerc who was at fault. Hence, the Australian ended up swearing at the Ferrari driver on team radio.
“I got hit. Fu*king co*khead,” he said. His race engineer immediately interrupted to ask if he could continue with the race after enduring damages from the hit.
Ricciardo replied, “I don’t know! He hit me pretty big. I’ll see.”
Poor 2021 run continues for Daniel Ricciardo
Just when it looked like fortunes were turning around for Ricciardo, he caught himself in the midst of an unfortunate pile-up during the race start at Hungaroring.
His McLaren suffered significant damages to the bodywork from the collision with Leclerc and his race was compromised from thereon. While the Honey Badger did try his level best to bring home some points for the British outfit, Max Verstappen stole the final spot in the top 10 during the latter part of the race, leaving Ricciardo out of contention for points.
Reuters
Formula One F1 – Hungarian Grand Prix – Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary – August 1, 2021 McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo after colliding with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc Pool via REUTERS/Peter Kohalmi
Also, with Lando Norris ending up in the garage after the lap 1 incident, Hungarian GP marked the first non-scoring weekend for the McLaren F1 team. What’s more, with Ferrari gaining strong points from Carlos Sainz’s P4, the gap between the two teams has now come down to just three points.
Hence, it looks like the battle for P3 on the constructors’ championship will boil down to the very final race of this season, with neither team giving up. So, to re-gain the gap, can McLaren put up a dominant show over the next race weekend at Spa?
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