‘Sorry for him’ – Ricciardo sends apology to former team mate after Monza clash

The Italian Grand Prix was about as far from ideal for RB as could be imagined, with two penalties for Daniel Ricciardo removing any chance of a points finish from the Australian, while Yuki Tsunoda was forced to retire with floor damage.

The incidents started early, with Ricciardo squeezing Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas on the very first lap. While the Honey Badger could continue after that moment of wheel banging, he was soon handed a five-second time penalty for causing the contact.

But worse was to follow, when his front jackman accidentally touched the car too soon when the penalty was served, meaning Ricciardo was handed a 10-second penalty for failing to serve the original one correctly.

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There could have been plenty of excuses therefore made by Ricciardo as to why he came home in 13th, but the RB man laid the blame on one thing.

“I think ultimately, we weren’t quick enough, like even without the penalties. For sure we tried, but I don’t think we were quick enough – Kevin [Magnussen] passed me on the medium and then drove away on the hards, and I think he had a penalty as well from what I heard at the end. Yeah, we weren’t quite fast enough,” said Ricciardo.

The Australian was quick to take the blame for the opening lap incident as well, saying he tried to find Hulkenberg post-race to explain his part in the contact.

“Obviously I’m aware I’m fighting and there’s a car alongside me, but you don’t really know. Like I thought we were good and then I felt the contact, so I obviously immediately assumed I didn’t give him enough room.

“So, I just wanted to know how bad it was, like was he half a car in the dirt or did he just grab a tyre. Yeah, it’s tough, you race hard but little things can make a difference so sorry for him.”

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Tsunoda might have had a few harsher words to say to Hulkenberg if their paths crossed post-race, after the German tried an optimistic move down the inside of the RB a few laps later, locking up and clattering into his rival, sending Tsunoda skewing off track and eventually out of the race.

“The damage to the floor is just too much and yeah, undrivable, the damage was too big to keep racing, that’s the main thing,” the Japanese star said afterwards.

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“I haven’t seen the replay, but for sure I saw him locking up into Turn 1 and I tried to escape and tried to give the space as much as possible but he just crashed into me so the race was pretty much, that was it – so an unnecessary move from him.”

It was a double blow for RB, as Tsunoda’s car was fitted with the only set of upgrades – thus the team were bereft not just of his presence in the race, but of any data on how those new parts fared around the Temple of Speed.

It also continued Tsunoda's poor luck at Monza, following on from his failure to start last year, meaning he has only seen the chequered flag once from four appearances here.