MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo red-faced over Baku blue

Daniel Ricciardo admits panic led to the embarrassing mistake that put him and fellow former Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kyvat out of the fourth Formula 1 grand prix of the year yesterday.

Still struggling with the brakes on his Renault RS19, Ricciardo overshot turn three of the Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan as he tried to overtake Kyvat’s Toro Rosso car.

Ricciardo then reversed without realising Kyvat also was in the ‘escape road’ behind him, the Renault hitting the Toro Rosso and ending the race for both of them.

Carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo, who has lacked confidence in his Renault’s brakes all season but thought he and the team were getting on top of the problem, said:

“I saw a gap (on lap 31 of 51) and thought I’d have a go.

“Initially I had the commitment and thought I’d pull it off, and then I felt I was going to start to lock [the brakes] and miss the corner.

“As I started to go down the escape road, it was just a sense of urgency and a bit of panic I guess, and just trying to minimise damage and lose as little time as possible.

“So I found reverse and started going and, to be honest, I had no idea he (Kyvat) was there – the urgency stopped me from looking.

“When I went long I thought he would have just cut back and stayed on track.

“I was just trying to minimise the mistake I’d already made, which turned into another mistake.

“I’m sorry. A bit of urgency on my behalf and I didn’t think straight for a few seconds.

“We were bringing on a nice rhythm, had some good pace … we probably could have scored points … I have to take that one on the chin.

“Kind of crappy on my part, I certainly feel bad for the [Renault] team and for Dany.

“Obviously it’s not cool. I feel pretty small at the moment.”

Kyvat, who has made more than his share of mistakes in F1, accepted that “these things happen, it’s racing”, but joked that he would buy Ricciardo a rear-view mirror.

Ricciardo has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next round of the Formula 1 World Championship in Barcelona in a fortnight as well as two demerit points on his super-licence.

Mercedes made history in Baku, becoming the first team in 70 years of F1 to finish one-two in the first four rounds of the championship.

Valtteri Bottas beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to the line by 1.5 seconds and regained the lead in the drivers’ championship by one point, 87-86, with the bonus point the Finn picked up in Melbourne for the fastest lap of the Australian GP he won on March 17 making the difference.

Mercedes leads Ferrari by a whopping 74 points in the constructors’ championship already, 173-99, after the Italian team again failed to deliver after looking to have the edge earlier in the Baku weekend.

Sebastian Vettel finished third for the scuderia last night, almost 12 seconds behind Bottas, while youngster Charles Leclerc was fifth, almost 70 seconds down, after crashing in qualifying when pole position was his for the taking and starting midfield.

While Leclerc set the fastest lap last night, he finished more than 50 seconds behind fourth-placed Max Verstappen’s Red Bull-Honda and little more than seven seconds ahead of Mexican Sergio Perez’s Racing Point-Mercedes.

Renault-powered McLaren scored its first double points finish for a year, with Carlos Sainz ahead of youngster Lando Norris, while Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo-Sauber’s veteran Kimi Raikkonen was 10th and is the only driver outside the top three teams to have been in the points at all four races.

The Renault factory team dropped from fourth to seventh in the constructors’ championship with Ricciardo not finishing for the third time this season and Nico Hulkenberg making up only one place by the chequered flag from his 14th grid position.

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul said it had been “a bad weekend” and that “the first stint of the season has been disappointing”.

“But if we get all things in order we can have a decent competitiveness level. We must absolutely see the start of the European season as an opportunity to reset,” Abiteboul said.

Hyundai also scored a one-two in Rally Argentina, with its Belgian driver Thierry Neuville’s i20 finishing 48.4 seconds ahead of Norwegian teammate Andreas Mikklesen’s similar car.

It made back-to-back victories for Neuville, who is now 10 points clear of the world champion of the past six years, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, in a Citroen C3.

Neuville had won the previous French round and goes into the new event in Chile on May 8-12 on 110 points to Ogier’s 100.

Toyota’s Estonian Ott Tanak, whose hopes in Argentina were ended by a broken driveshaft and then an alternator problem, is third on 82 points.

One of Tanak’s teammates, Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, lost out to Ogier on the final podium spot by 1.4 seconds, while Finn Jari-Matti Latvala was another 15 seconds back in fifth place in the third Yaris.

Hyundai has a commanding lead in the manufacturers’ championship now with 157 points to Toyota’s 120, Citroen’s 117 and M-Sport-Ford’s 78.

The Formula E all-electric open-wheeler series has had eight winners in eight races in its fifth season, with Dutchman Robin Frijns the latest for Envision Virgin Racing.

Frijns won a wet ePrix on the streets of Paris that ended under caution from Germans Andre Lotterer (DS Virgin Racing) and Daniel Abt ((Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler).

Frijns leads Lotterer by a point, 81-80, with the next race in Monaco on May 11.