Daniel Ricciardo will be joining Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in taking a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Daniel Ricciardo to join Valtteri Bottas with grid penalty at Silverstone
This penalty, like Bottas’, has been handed to the Red Bull Racing driver because his gearbox has failed to meet the mandatory six races of use that it should meet. This was confirmed by Jo Bauer on Saturday morning before FP3 and ahead of qualifying when the FIA Technical Delegate released a report confirming that Red Bull had changed the gearbox on Ricciardo’s car following practice on Friday.
This gearbox penalty will most likely end Ricciardo’s current fun of five consecutive podium finishes due the lower starting position that he faces on Sunday’s race. Theoretically, Ricciardo could start in a highest position of sixth place on the grid if he did get pole on Saturday. As Ricciardo was only sixth fastest in first and second practice however, it is hard to imagine this in reality, and it is more probable that he will start in the mid field positions through this penalty.
Ricciardo currently lies in fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship, 64 points behind Sebastian Vettel who currently leads for Ferrari. The closest driver to Ricciardo in the standings is Kimi Raikkonen who lies in fifth, 24 points behind while Ricciardo’s team mate, Max Verstappen, lies in seventh place following a reliability-plagued 2017 so far.
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