Daniel Ricciardo says he’s not surprised Romain Grosjean picked up a penalty in Monaco, which will see the Lotus driver start ten places lower than he qualifies in Canada, after he hit the rear of Ricciardo last weekend.
The Australian believes Grosjean was clearly at fault in the crash, despite claims to the contrary from the Frenchman, which caused Ricciardo to brand his rival an “idiot” to his face during the stewards meeting.
“I’m not surprised Romain picked up a penalty: we were in the stewards’ office together and, to be honest, I didn’t need to say much,” he explained.
“They had the data and once I saw the video, it was pretty much what I thought it had been. Tom Kristensen (driver steward) was there and he’s experienced enough to understand that type of collision.
“Sometimes when things like this happen, you want to blow off steam but by that point I really couldn’t be bothered shouting and screaming at Grosjean. It was a disappointing end to a deeply unsatisfying weekend and I didn’t want to waste the energy yelling “screw you, what the hell were you thinking?” I just said “you’re an idiot”, and that was it.”
On a more positive side, Ricciardo is pleased not to have lost any points as a result of the coming together.
“If there’s a bright side, it’s that it didn’t cost me any points. It’s a funny sort of positive to take away but I’d have felt a lot worse if I’d been in the top ten at that stage.”
