Ricciardo gets Saudi Arabian GP grid drop for Ocon block

McLaren Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for impeding Esteban Ocon in qualifying.

In Q2 in Jeddah, Alpine’s Ocon found his former team-mate Ricciardo in his path at Turn 9 during their first qualifying runs and had to abort his lap.

Ocon was still able to make it through to Q3 after a late improvement, while Ricciardo was knocked out in 12th place along with his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Ricciardo admitted to the stewards that he didn’t know that Ocon was approaching him on a fast lap and he wasn’t informed by his McLaren team.

“By the time he saw [Ocon] approaching, it was too late. The team representative admitted that they had made an error in not warning their driver about [Ocon] approaching,” the FIA’s statement read.

“[Ocon] stated that his lap had to be aborted as a result of him being unnecessarily impeded by [Ricciardo].

“Having said that, he stated that his overall performance during the session was not adversely impacted by the aborted lap.”

The stewards noted the fact that Ocon still progressed to Q3 was “irrelevant” and said McLaren had “failed in its duty to keep” Ricciardo properly informed of the approaching cars.

They therefore handed McLaren a €10,000 fine and Ricciardo a grid drop of three places that should shuffle him back to 14th place in the starting order.

It promotes 2022’s role rookie Zhou Guanyu to 12th place and it would have moved Mick Schumacher up to 13th, had his Haas team not been forced to withdraw his car from tomorrow’s race due to his qualifying shunt.

Instead, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll moves up to two places to 13th, with Lewis Hamilton – who was knocked out in the first part of qualifying – due to start 15th.