Valtteri Bottas has been handed a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points for impeding Daniel Ricciardo during the second qualifying phase for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver complained that Bottas had blocked him during an out-lap which ruined the Australian’s flying lap. He did however make it through to Q3.
“He was on his out-lap,” said Ricciardo. “I’ll have a word with him. There were a lot of times last year, to be honest…
“We raced each other a lot in the junior categories and I thought we had a lot of respect for each other, but it’s a little difficult how many times he’s done that now.”
The Finn drops from 15th to 18th and is the first driver to receive penalty points on his super license. The new rule for 2014 allows a maximum of 12 points before a driver is forced to miss a race.
Bottas didn’t believe he’d receive a penalty for the incident.
“It was a difficult situation – we had a radio problem and in turn nine the team told me that I had either a gap in front or behind Ricciardo.
“So I thought I would try to stay in front. Obviously he was coming very quickly and it was a bit closer in the last few corners than maybe it should’ve been.
“I thought it would be OK and there would be no penalties.”
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