Christian Horner gives his verdict on the Daniel Ricciardo-Alex Albon clash

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner felt that it was hard to portion blame on Daniel Ricciardo or Alex Albon for their first lap incident at the Japanese GP on Sunday.

The Visa Cash App RB driver and the Williams F1 driver collided with each other and went into the tire wall at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the main race. The Aussie driver was defending his position from a gaggle of cars and did not see the fast-approaching FW45 of Albon on his right.

Speaking with Total-Motorsport, the Red Bull team boss pointed out that the crash was a 'racing incident' between the two drivers, saying:

“It felt like Daniel looked to the left, Alex is to the right, sort of a racing incident. It’s a brutal place to go off and thankfully both of them are ok but from what I saw, difficult to apportion blame."

Horner also spoke about Daniel Ricciardo's struggles against his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the first four races of 2024 and added:

“Daniel‘s a big boy, he’s been around the block and he knows how things work I think he just needs to get a good result in the bag and then the smile will return. His teammate’s delivering and that naturally puts pressure on but he’s been there before."

Daniel Ricciardo analyzes his first lap crash with Alex Albon

Daniel Ricciardo stated that it was a 'shame' that he and Alex Albon collided with each other on Lap 1 of the 2024 Japanese GP at the Suzuka International Circuit.

As per F1.com, the RB driver said:

"It was a shame and an unfortunate one for all of us involved. It was a racing incident, and luckily, after some checks, both Alex and I were okay.

"I was watching him but when I was preparing to enter Turn 3, without using all the track as it was the first lap, Albon got alongside me and had a better exit from Turn 2. I didn’t see him and we touched."

The DNF came at the worst possible time for Daniel Ricciardo as he had good steps in Japan despite limited running in his VCARB01 due to sitting out the FP1 session and letting Ayumu Iwasa drive his car.

He would hope to bounce back in China, where he won in 2018 with Red Bull, and finally put an end to his struggles in the 2024 season.