Daniel Ricciardo has claimed that a number of F1 drivers "haven’t been that impressed" with Esteban Gutierrez not getting out of the way of leaders when being lapped, and that he lost more time lapping him than anyone else in today's German Grand Prix.
Gutierrez however denied Ricciardo's claims and says he plans to talk to the Australian.
Gutierrez was involved in a similar controversy with Lewis Hamilton in the previous race in Hungary, and upon lapping the Haas today in Hockenheim Ricciardo was heard saying on his team radio "he’s one of my favourites, I love this guy".
He explained his comments after the race.
"To be honest, off the track, I have no problem at all with Esteban," said Ricciardo. "I think he's actually one of the nicer guys.
"But just on the track just lately, it’s come up the last few races that a few of us haven’t been that impressed with the blue flags. We’ve discussed it in drivers' meetings.
"I've been in the position and I know it sucks, it sucks to move out of the line and let the leaders through – but it seems particularly the last three races in a row…everyone is doing an OK job and it seems like he's doing a less good job than the others.
"I was trying to say it [on the radio] as politely as possible but, yeah. I think because he’s been told already, he knows that a few aren't that impressed with his blue flag handling. I thought by now the message would have gone through but for me at least today… I lost more time behind him than anyone else."
Gutierrez however was bemused by Ricciardo's comments.
"I will speak to him," Gutierrez said. "I'm surprised. I saw he was behind, but he was pretty far away.
"He was struggling to get close to me, and then at some point I lifted completely and I let him by when he was a bit closer. I lost around two seconds.
"I did my best. It was not my intention to block or anything. If he is not comfortable with it, I will try to speak to him and make things better. It's not my intention to do anything bad to anyone."
Gutierrez also denied Ricciardo's claim that his driving had already been discussed.
"There was my discussion with Lewis, but apart from that… [shrugs shoulders]," he said.
"I got penalised in that race. What else can I do? I got the consequence, today I wasn't penalised. There was nothing wrong. It's not like I was blocking."
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