In Mexico City, both McLaren drivers scored points, allowing the team to somewhat close the gap on Alpine, which is competing for 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship. In addition, Daniel Ricciardo was recognized as the “Rider of the Day”, because after colliding with Yuki Tsunoda on the track, he was fined, given a 10-second penalty, but was able to win it back on the track, with a very good pace on soft tires.
Daniel Riccardo (7th): “I’m very happy with the race, although it wasn’t that easy, I still got a 10-second penalty, so I have mixed feelings.
Of course, you never want to allow contact with other cars, especially if the opponent is going far. But I’ve already watched the video for that episode, and I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. However, it would be better if this incident did not happen.
And I think the penalty is too harsh, in my opinion 5 seconds would be enough. I made no mistake, didn’t miss the apex, didn’t lock the brakes, then my car hit Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri.
In any case, I take responsibility for what happened, but I was just trying to take the inner lane to make it go to the left, and then I would have left that corner calmly. And I was sure Yuki saw where my car was.
In general, I’m willing to take most of the blame, but I can’t say it was entirely my fault. This is an unpleasant moment of the race, but when they told me that I had been fined, I was very upset and did not immediately add to it. But then I felt I could go at a good pace, and I succeeded.”
Lando Norris (9th): “At the start I lost two positions and rolled back to 10th. At the beginning I was off the racing line and then I got ahead in the first corners, but nothing special happened.
Overall we did well, although we may have switched to hard tires too early to get ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, it wasn’t the best decision. But apart from this moment our tactics were very normal and Daniel performed very well today.
He was luckier than me: he stayed on the track so he could do whatever he wanted. Today’s race was more successful for him.
But from the beginning we had such a plan: those who are in such a situation will act like this: they stay on the track longer and then switch to soft tires. Daniel was in such a situation and made the most of it, overall he did a great job!”
Source: F1 News
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