30/10/2016
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo is frustrated at the stewards failure to punish Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in today's Grand Prix.
Though the clash in the final laps of the race is still being investigated by the stewards, Daniel Ricciardo is angry that action wasn't taken sooner, as it was with teammate Max Verstappen, and that Lewis Hamilton escaped punishment despite going on track at the start of the race.
"To be honest I didn't understand at the start, how you can be leading the race, defend, lock your wheels and go off track, and still stay in the lead," he told Sky Sports. "I think Lewis deserved a penalty. I think anyone in that position deserves a penalty.
"I saw Max cut the chicane trying to defend, he got a penalty," he continued. "So I don't know, to be honest, what was that different with his move and Lewis'. For me, if you lock up the brakes and cut the corner, it's a mistake, you have to pay the price."
Turning his attention to Vettel, he said: "I felt that Seb did what everyone has been complaining about lately, moving under braking.
"He's smiling now, but I don't know, for me he doesn't deserve to be up there with that move he pulled.
"I saw he defended half way down the straight, I was going to go to the outside, and then it just looked like he opened it so I committed to the inside," he continued. "I thought I had every right to be there, and then he just kept closing the door under braking. I locked the brakes trying to avoid contact, but he just kept closing so in the end I had nowhere to go. I was frustrated with that.
"Don't get me wrong, I love racing, I love racing hard, I love seeing locking brakes and even a bit of contact is fine," he insisted, "but this whole moving under braking, if you're going to defend, you commit early and that's it. You don't do it once you've already been outfoxed. I feel like that's what I did today, Seb was there, he moved, I went, I won the chess match if you like.
"And then he's like 'oh, I screwed up, and now I'm going to try and repair my mistake'. For me that's not right."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City, here.