Carlos Sainz and Ferrari welcomed Daniel Ricciardo’s apology to the team after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
In a wet start, the Australian clumsily hit Sainz’s car going through Tamburello after touching the kerb, spinning him into the gravel and into retirement for the second successive race.
Ricciardo would continue but finished last in 18th, as a gamble to move on to hard tyres backfired. But post-race, his first thought was to seek out Sainz.
“It says much about Daniel as an athlete and as a sportsman that immediately after the race, you could see he had a tough one but the first thing he did was come to the Ferrari box to apologise to me,” Carlos revealed.
Daniel went into the Ferrari hospitality to apologize to Carlos#ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/pkSMSIr7oJ
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“There was the whole mechanics here with me and we all thanked him for the gesture.
“That’s why there’s no hard feelings with Daniel because what happened to me could happen to anyone out there today.
“But unfortunately it had to happen to me. It’s how it is, the incident has no mystery to it, I think if you see the onboard and what happened it’s very clear to everyone.”
Explaining what happened at Tamburello, Ricciardo said: “I got onto the kerb becuase I knew it’s going to bottle up at some point, so tried to give myself a little bit more space.
Daniel Ricciardo reflects on his Lap 1 incident with Carlos Sainz ?
And, sums up a difficult race ?#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Ldo4HIVCAs
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“But I think as soon as I got onto it, I just started sliding straight off it and then slid up into the track, and obviously then went into Carlos.
“I’ll see if I could have done anything differently, but it’s tough because you go slower into Turn 1, you be more cautious and then someone’s going to probably do the same to you, or you might put yourself in a more sandwiched position.
“I went into [Turn] 1 feeling like it was all under control. Obviously, it wasn’t. It’s not fun to ruin your day but also someone else’s, so one of those days.”