"It was a painful 60 laps" - Daniel Ricciardo laments unfortunate turn of events for him at 2022 F1 Imola GP

Daniel Ricciardo took the blame for his clash with Carlos Sainz in the Imola GP and felt sorry for ending the Ferrari driver's race. Explaining the incident after the race, the Australian explained that a misjudgement of trying to avoid contact by moving onto the kerb cost him and the Ferrari driver their race.

Explaining how the unfortunate events unfolded, Daniel Ricciardo said:

But from memory I think I got onto the kerb, just to try by myself to give a bit more space because I knew at some point its going to bottle up. But once I got up on the kerb I slid off it and just started to slide up into him. So I think thats what happen now after the fact. Intentions were in a way good to try and leave some room but yeah in those conditions I didn’t have the grip that I was hopeful for and I slid up into him and ruined his race as well and then we had damage and it was a painful 60 laps.”

Initially, the McLaren driver thought he was hit by somebody, but after seeing Sainz's on-board, he realized it was his own misjudgement that caused the dramatic turn of events. Carrying damage from the contact made with Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo had a compromised run for the next 60 laps of the race.

Suggesting he had no intention of ruining another driver’s race, the Australian explained that he moved on to the kerb in an attempt to avoid contact, but due to lack of grip in the damp track conditions, he slid off into the Ferrari driver. After recently renewing his contract with the team, the clash cost the Spanish driver no fault of his own, to which he said the clash was unavoidable.

Lamenting his frustration at not being able to capitalize on his car’s improvised performance, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Yeah its for sure frustrating, competitive or not. Its not the way you want Sunday to go. Lap 1 incidents are the worst, especially when you keep going to be honest. Its easier when you finish it on lap 1, its like obviously for the rest of the race your trying to make something happen. But with damage as well, its really never going to come around so we’ll try and pick some things up.”

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Daniel Ricciardo revealed his urgency to offer an apology to Carlos Sainz after the race

The Australian’s misjudgement that caused that end Sainz’s race, made offering an apology, was the need of the hour. Suggesting that looking forward to the next race in Miami was the only thing to do, Daniel Ricciardo believes that apologizing to the Ferrari driver was necessary.

After explaining his frustration at the race, Daniel Ricciardo ended his post-race comments by saying:

“For now, I will go and see Carlos, I am sure he was in here already. But go see him. All I can do now is apologise and try and move on for Miami.”

With his team-mate Lando Norris on the podium, it was a frustrating turn of events for the Australian. McLaren’s recovery form its technical issues in the previous three races had assured him a top spot in the top 10, had he avoided first lap drama. After the current result at Imola, his British team-mate leads him by 24 points in the driver's standings.