MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- Daniel Ricciardo has explained his version of events behind the incident that saw Sebastian Vettel stripped of a podium at the Mexican Grand Prix, saying what his ex-teammate did was "not correct".
Ricciardo took the position from Vettel after the stewards hit the Ferrari driver with a 10-second time penalty for driving dangerously while defending position. Replays of the incident showed Vettel cut across on Ricciardo after both hit the brakes for Turn 4 on lap 68. The Ferrari then squeezed the Red Bull, causing the two cars to bang wheels on entry to the corner.
Vettel came out of the corner ahead and retained the position, but after a lengthily investigation was penalised by the stewards.
"For starters, if you are going to move that late, you are already putting yourself in a bad position," Ricciardo said after the result of the investigation was announced. "When a driver moves under braking he is trying to repair a mistake he has made, which was not defending more before braking.
"So he left the door open, that allowed me to have a go and then it looked like he realised I was going to make the position so then he started to close the door and that was that. Obviously the rule has been written since Austin and there has obviously been cases of it earlier, but now it's on paper and that's all happened.
"Don't get me wrong, I love the fight, I love racing and I don't like the penalties and all that, but this moving under braking, all of us drivers agreed that it's not real racing and not correct.
Asked to confirm they were both braking when Vettel moved across, Ricciardo said: "Yes, it's both during braking. If he moved before braking there should be no penalty, but once you are then in the braking zone and you keep closing ... that's why you see on the on-board and all the data that that's when I start to lock [my brakes]. Yes I went into him but it was because of the movment that I had to try to avoid it."
Asked about how he felt about missing out on the podium, Ricciardo said: "It's a tough one, but obviously I'm happy to get the points or whatever and that's seals third for me in the drivers' championship, so I'm quite proud of that this year.
"It sure would have been nice to get up on the podium and enjoy it, but nonetheless that was the situation today. It was a fun race, even if afterwards in the media pen I was quite frustrated with the incident and all that, I still had a lot of fun in that battle.
"Being the hunter at the end is still so much more fun than driving around by yourself, so the race came alive. Obviously it got a bit spicy but it was a cool day."
Max does the honours as he hands @danielricciardo the trophy for P3 at the #MexicoGP! 🎉🏆🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/lIsPef5KlP
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 31, 2016