Daniel Ricciardo, who drives for RB, got punished for passing Nico Hulkenberg from the Haas team when the safety car was out on lap 28 at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Ricciardo received two penalty points for this mistake. Earlier, Lance Stroll from Aston Martin bumped into Ricciardo during another safety car restart, causing a lot of damage to Ricciardo’s car, which forced him to leave the race.
Hulkenberg managed to pass Ricciardo during the safety car restart because Ricciardo was pushed wide by Stroll. Hulkenberg did this without getting penalized.
Ricciardo thought he could get back the position he lost when the safety car was out. So, during the next safety car period, when debris was being cleared from the track, Ricciardo overtook Hulkenberg. But, according to the stewards, Ricciardo wasn’t allowed to do that.
The stewards said, “Ricciardo admitted to overtaking Hulkenberg on purpose. He thought he could because Hulkenberg overtook him during the safety car on Lap 28. But Hulkenberg was allowed to do that because of the rules. There was no good reason for Ricciardo to overtake Hulkenberg during the safety car period. So, we gave Ricciardo a 10-second time penalty.”
Since Ricciardo couldn’t serve the penalty due to his retirement from the race, he’ll get a 3-grid place penalty for the next race he participates in.
Ricciardo was already upset about the collision with Stroll that ended his race early. Now, with this penalty, he’ll have to start further back in the next race.
Alpine, the team Gasly drives for, got fined €10,000 for an unsafe incident during a pit stop. Gasly was allowed to leave his pit box even though the rear-right wheel wasn’t properly attached. It fell off when the car hit the ground, knocking over a mechanic. The stewards said Alpine was fully responsible for this incident.
