RB reassured Daniel Ricciardo he was not to blame after the stewards gave him a five-second time penalty for jumping the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.
The stewards noted Ricciardo’s car “moved after the four second light was illuminated and before the start signal was given” prior to the start. He therefore fell foul of the stricter rules on jump starts which were introduced after the season began.
Ricciardo said after the race he hadn’t realised his car was moving before the red lights went out.
“I got a penalty for a jump start, but I was a bit confused because I knew that I didn’t jump the lights but then I remembered that during the start I felt that maybe the car was moving,” he said.
“We had a bit of an issue with the car, and we’ll have a look at it, but obviously, this was a back step for our race.”
His race engineer Pierre Hamelin told him on the radio: “The penalty was nothing to do with you, Daniel. No mistake on your side. It was an issue with the car.”
RB team principal Laurent Mekies later confirmed Ricciardo’s car moved before the start “due to some very slight clutch dragging.”
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Ricciardo was running seventh when he took his penalty on lap 26, during the first Safety Car period. It dropped him to 10th place at the restart, though two of the drivers who gained places from him did not pit, and so would have got ahead of him anyway.
“When we pitted for the inters, we lost a few positions to the cars that stayed out and weren’t really able to get much more out of the new tyres,” said Ricciardo. “We jumped out of the point-scoring positions, and the race was kind of getting away from us.”
After losing a place to Alexander Albon, who was later taken out by Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ricciardo gained places from Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon. He finished eighth, one place behind Lance Stroll, the only driver who moved ahead of Ricciardo due to his penalty.
“As the track dried towards the end and we were on mediums, I was able to pick my way through a few cars back into the top 10 which was a little bit of a relief,” said Riccairdo. “I’m happy it was a fairly smooth weekend for us, and obviously for increasing the gap to the midfield behind us.”
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2024 Canadian Grand Prix
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