Daniel Ricciardo was confused why the stewards treated his incidents separately at the French Grand Prix last Sunday.
The Australian had spent the second stint closing down Lando Norris’ ailing McLaren for sixth and finally got the chance to attack at the Mistral chicane on the final lap.
With a little argy-bargy, he got through on the McLaren only to passed by Kimi Raikkonen before he then re-took the Finn on the straight that followed.
After the race, however, he was given two five-second penalties for going off track, once to pass Norris and the second to pass Raikkonen, dropping Ricciardo to 11th.
“I certainly feel two was harsh,” he said on Thursday in Austria. “To drop me out of the points I thought was too harsh. With the one, I would have already dropped to 10th. Give me one point for trying!
“The Lando one is the one I don’t necessarily agree with,” Ricciardo explained. “If anything, it kind of slowed us all down and I don’t think I gained an advantage with what I did with Lando.
“The Kimi one you could say, sure – I went off the track to make a move, but with Lando, I don’t think it was like that. If I was in Kimi’s position or if I got passed off the track, then I’d say, ‘Hey what is going on?’
“I just don’t know why it was treated as two separate incidents, that’s all. The rules have to be there, but…”
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On the Raikkonen incident, the ‘Honey Badger’ concluded by also calling out the decision to put a strip of painted tarmac between the white line and the wall, which was what he used to pass the Alfa Romeo.
“Put gravel, something, there and it automatically stops us. It does stop us,” he said, “[It] creates the penalty for us as opposed to then being handed it after the race. That is why I am not really a fan of the big open tracks
However, he quickly admitted: “I think I’d still try if there was gravel there…”
