Ricciardo accepts blame for crash in practice

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Daniel Ricciardo said he was to blame for his crash in the early stages of Friday’s second practice session at Suzuka.

The Red Bull driver skidded off the track at the last corner and hit a barrier. The session had to be red-flagged while his car was recovered.

“I made a mistake in FP2,” Ricciardo said afterwards. “I did a quick lap and then I was trying to get a good exit to start the next one.”

“We were trying to cool the tyres and there was a yellow flag so I was trying to go slow enough to miss it at the start of the lap, but I think the tyres cooled too much and I was too hard on the throttle for the situation and lost the car.”

Ricciardo hopes the data gathered by team mate Sebastian Vettel will enable him to make progress but expects they won’t be able to beat the Mercedes in Japan.

“It’s not ideal as we missed running this afternoon, but Sebastian did a full session so we will be able to see his data,” said Ricciardo.

“The Mercs were really quick today,, we think we’re there but then they pull a gap. I think we should be able to be third on the grid.”

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Japanese Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

12 comments on “Ricciardo accepts blame for crash in practice”

  1. Is he the first RB to crash this year?

  2. Look at all the downforce that front wing generates – that guy can barely lift it.

    1. he even needs the mini-crane to lift him with it =))

    2. Lol no it’s his hair caught up in it

    3. Nah, the guy is just crouching so that the crane doesn’t hit him.

    4. Looks like he is playing guitar

    5. Crouching marshal hidden down force.

  3. Silly question, but does Vettel asking about Ricciardo’s condition ok under the clarified radio stuff?

  4. Was actually funny to me, was one of most pathetic mistakes i have seen. It was a rookie mistake from a great driver. Lets be honest it was Pastor esque

  5. Respect to Ricciardo for owning his mistake and moving on. It’s easy, a few other drivers may want to try that approach. :-)

    1. Yeah, Maldonado does the exact opposite every time he crashes, which is almost every race weekend.

  6. Last person I remember doing that was Montoya. I think…

Comments are closed.