Ricciardo Apologizes for Hulkenberg Clash at Italian GP as RB Endures Troubling Race

Daniel Ricciardo comments on his collision with Nico Hulkenberg: "I believed there was enough room; I said sorry"

Daniel Ricciardo addresses the incident involving Haas during the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo stated that he offered an apology to Nico Hulkenberg after they collided during the first lap of the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

During the first lap of Sunday's race at Monza, Red Bull driver Ricciardo and Hulkenberg clashed while competing in the middle of the pack at Turn 8.

Ricciardo mentioned that he believed he had enough room, but then experienced a collision. This resulted in Hulkenberg's Haas being pushed onto the dirt, allowing his teammate Kevin Magnussen to overtake.

The Australian driver initially received a five-second penalty for the incident. However, he was later handed a 10-second penalty because one of his mechanics touched his car during the first penalty at his pit stop.

Ricciardo finished a challenging race at his home circuit for the Red Bull team in 13th place.

“In the end, we didn’t have enough speed today, even without factoring in the penalties,” he stated.

“We gave it our best shot, and I was having fun with the close racing initially, but I ended up colliding with Nico at Turn 8.

“After the race, I had a conversation with him. I believed there was enough space, but I felt the impact, indicating I hadn’t provided sufficient room. I offered my apology for that.”

"Competing intensely is challenging because even tiny differences can be crucial."

"The vehicle performed adequately afterward, and we exerted maximum effort given our resources. From Friday afternoon until today, I aimed to extract the car's full potential."

“I’m feeling much improved this weekend, and we almost managed to score some points.”

Tsunoda Leaves Italian GP in Frustration

The Italian Grand Prix was heavily influenced by Hulkenberg, as per team member Laurent Mekies. A clash between Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda resulted in Tsunoda’s race coming to an early conclusion.

"I'm quite upset; it's unfortunate that my race ended just a few laps in because of a collision with Nico," Tsunoda expressed.

"I attempted to give him plenty of room, but it looked like he froze, lost control, and collided with me."

"Regrettably, we had to withdraw the car from the race due to damage sustained to its floor."

"I noticed it immediately and attempted to keep going, but the vehicle was swerving and I just couldn't control it."

"We're heading to Baku and Singapore next, and our car is expected to perform well at those tracks. We're optimistic about having successful weekends there."

Mekies is upset about the Tsunoda incident because it caused him to lose important track time with the upgraded RB car that was brought to Monza.

"Today's race seemed to be controlled by Hulkenberg. Daniel received a five-second penalty for pushing him off the track. Subsequently, Nico collided with Yuki, which resulted in us having to retire the car," he stated.

"The most disappointing part of Yuki's retirement is missing out on those 40 laps that could have given us more insight into the new updates we implemented."

"Daniel was handed an additional 10-second penalty due to an error in carrying out the initial one."

“We need to examine our processes in this situation and take lessons from the error made today. Although incidents like this occur, our pit crew's performance has been outstanding overall this season.”

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