07/04/2024
NEWS STORY
The Suzuka stewards have opted to take no further action over the first lap incident involving Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon that caused today's race to be red-flagged.
While the front runners got through the opening complex with any issues, further back, Ricciardo and Albon clash in Turn 2 as the Australian appeared to move to his right to avoid Lance Stroll, clipping the left-front of the Williams with his right-rear in the process.
"Myself and Yuki had a pretty poor getaway on the mediums," explained the RB driver, "and all the cars behind on the soft just got us quite easily and we were just kind of scrabbling obviously for some grip.
"By Turn 2 it settled a little bit," he continued, "but then I remember getting out of two still with a little bit of traction and I remember an Aston on my left. So I was kind of watching that car and then as I was starting to drift to open up three, I felt Alex.
"I saw his onboard and he just had so much better drive out of two," he added. "I don't even know if he wanted to be there, but he could see me kind of going a little bit sideways and just I think everyone kind of got choked up and that was that. So unfortunately a short Sunday."
"I had not had a great start," admitted Albon, "but obviously a bit better than those on the mediums, and had good traction coming out of Turn 2. That was it, really.
"I don't think Daniel saw me and then it was just a bit of a pinching moment. I tried to back out of it but I couldn't quite get out of the way quick enough. So it was a tough one to take."
The stewards heard from both drivers and their team representatives and also reviewed the positioning/marshalling system data, external and in-car video evidence.
According to the stewards, the explanations of both drivers were aligned as to the facts of the incident in that on the approach to Turn 3, Ricciardo noticed Lance Stroll on his left and stated that he wanted to give him sufficient room. He stated he then looked to the apex of Turn 3, but did not see Albon on his right.
Albon stated that he thought he could overtake the RB on the outside, into Turn 3, but then suddenly realised that Ricciardo had not seen him, applied the brakes but could not avoid the contact.
Accordingly the stewards determine this to be a first lap incident and decided to take no further action.
However, if the incident had occurred on a subsequent lap, or without the presence of the third car, a different determination would have been made.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.