Daniel Ricciardo vented his anger as a clash with Antonio Giovinazzi ended his recovery after being excluded from Singapore GP qualifying.
Initially set to start eighth, the FIA found his Renault MGU-K has briefly exceeded the allowed 120kw power limit following a kerb strike, with his team putting any advantage gained at one-millisecond.
Still, pumped up to make up the lost ground, the Australian was running well having capitalised on a long first stint before an aggressive pass on Giovinazzi resulted in a puncture and an eventual 14th place finish.
“The contact with Giovinazzi destroyed our race,” he said to the media post-race.
“At the time, I didn’t feel like it was his fault, didn’t feel like it was my fault. It was a bit of an unfortunate incident. I had a bit of wheelspin on the exit which then maybe slid into him.
“I’ll watch a replay, but I don’t think anyone was trying to have each other over, let’s put it that way. Just tough consequence. I guess that’s street racing.”
Having produced plenty of his trademark passes at Marina Bay, Ricciardo admits that moment came at just the wrong time.
“I felt like we were ticking off every box and it was like ‘make the most of the first part when everyone is bunched up’,” he explained.
“And then I felt like we were going to get into some clean air and use the last of the tyres. We were getting close to our pit window at the time with our contact with Giovinazzi.”
Soon though, his attention switched back to the events of Saturday, revealing the impact it had and the reaction it caused.
“Disgracefully. I had a very restless night sleep trying to go through it in my head, why that penalty would be so harsh,” he said on how he took the news.
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“For me, it happened on one occurrence on one lap. If it was happening at the same corner every lap throughout the session, I would not complain at all.
“It’s like track limits, you go off and gain and advantage, delete that lap. We didn’t even gain an advantage from this and yet they delete the whole session.
“I was disgraced by that. I voiced my opinion and I will keep voicing it. They are doing all the great things by letting us race on track and all that, but then what’s the point of not giving penalties on track but then giving a massive penalty for something that’s out of my control.
“I have some strong words for them, but I’ll leave that. I think you know what I feel, they ruined my weekend.
“A 12-hour flight return, I feel was a bit for nothing. So maybe they will pay for my seat on the way home tomorrow.”
