Initially taking responsibility for his "painful" first lap clash with Valtteri Bottas on Sunday, having reviewed the incident Daniel Ricciardo doesn't feel quite as bad.

Having "opened up the sea" for Max Verstappen on the long run to Turn 1, Bottas' day got a whole lot worse when he was tagged by Ricciardo in the right-hander, sending the Mercedes into a spin which dropped him to the back of the field.

Both drivers subsequently pitted, before spending the rest of the afternoon running together.

"The first lap incident was about as painful as they get, because your race is pretty much over from the start," said the Australian of the clash, which was dismissed as a 'lap one incident' by the stewards, but which Toto Wolff insisted required investigation.

"I was in a tricky position," the McLaren driver continued, "because I know that if I didn't go for it, someone else would have, and I'd probably have been swamped by other cars.

"At the end of the day, I think it's just a lap one incident," he insisted. "The start was good and those first few hundred metres were looking positive. I think we were potentially in P4, and in a split-second it changes. That's the nature of the beast, but these ones are pretty painful because you have to endure the race and hope something happens, but nothing really did.

"The car was also damaged, we had a chunk of downforce missing. A bit heart-breaking. For a few seconds it looked awesome and then it looked pretty un-awesome."

That was in the heat of the moment on Sunday however, after watching replays of the incident, Ricciardo reassessed the clash.

"I had a good launch and slipstream and we were looking pretty good," he says, "I was alongside Perez I think into 1 and I locked-up initially, and then I collected it.

"I still feel bad," he admits, "because the race was done, but let's say I feel, if there could be a way, slightly better now after seeing that.

"It actually looked like I locked before kind of the entry point and then I gathered it up again and I think it just looks like, obviously Valtteri's come in to kind of close the apex and then it's me and Perez and there's basically not enough room for all of us.

"So, it was actually a lot smaller hit than I thought.

"It's the nature of the beast obviously with the sport and Lap 1 incidents can happen. Obviously the cars are pretty fragile as well, you just hit at the wrong angle and a lot of things kind of go breaking.

"So yeah, to obviously have the race go wrong in a few seconds, that's the disappointing part and the sad part of the sport sometimes."