Stewards 'accepted' they got Stroll decision wrong

Having declared Lance Stroll’s move on Daniel Ricciardo at the Styrian GP fair, the Aussie is “frustrated” that the stewards have since changed their view.

Ricciardo was involved in a late-race battle with Stroll for sixth place at the Styrian Grand Prix.

The Racing Point driver made his move on the penultimate lap, diving up the inside at Turn 3, forcing both him and Ricciardo off the track.

Stewards are looking at the Stroll/Ricciardo incident at Turn 3. #F1 #StyrianGP #NotTheAustrianGP #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/dG8gcUj63G

— Jeff Pappone ?? (@jpappone) July 12, 2020

The Red Bull Ring stewards decided not to penalise Stroll for a move that Ricciardo described as “desperate”.

The incident was one of the topics in the Friday drivers’ briefing ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix with Ricciardo revealing that stewards say in hindsight they have taken a different view of the incident, feeling it should have been penalised.

The Renault driver isn’t impressed.

“If it happens again today then we’d swap positions,” he explained to Autosport.

“I think after the facts, they accepted that they would have done something different.

“But once Sunday night passes and Monday rolls over, the results are fixed. And you can’t go back and switch positions or anything.

“So obviously a bit frustrated.

“There is a little bit of comfort knowing that that wouldn’t stick, moving forward. So I guess we can take that.

“But I just felt like at the time, it should have been more more clear, and more obvious.

“And some of the conversation was also around me going off the track.

“But obviously, it wasn’t my choice. I didn’t drive off there for good fun.

“And we discussed it. They basically admitted they would do it differently next time.”

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It isn’t the first time that a late lunge has decided a position at the Red Bull Ring with Max Verstappen doing just that to Charles Leclerc at last year’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s move also didn’t result in a penalty, in fact it handed him the race victory.

Ricciardo says the stewards have declared Stroll’s move was not the same as Verstappen’s.

“It doesn’t help me now, or a few days ago, but I think that they are aware that there’s a difference between that incident and the Leclerc/Verstappen incident last year, and that’s that’s the big one, it’s the same corner.

“And it’s still a very different outcome of the incident.

“So I think they’re aligned with that now, it’s not the same. At first, I think they did feel it was the same, which is why the initial penalty wasn’t given.”

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