BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Valtteri Bottas was given a ten-second penalty and two superlicence penalty points for his collision with Daniel Ricciardo at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. However, due to his 23-second margin over Pierre Gasly in sixth, Bottas held on to his fifth-place finishing position.
Bottas and Ricciardo collided at Turn 1 on lap 68 as the Mercedes driver desperately tried to defend fourth position. Bottas was on 53-lap old tyres at the time after Mercedes opted to pit him on lap 15 of the race and keep him out on track to hinder Vettel's progress.
As well as having heavily worn tyres, Bottas also had damage to his front wing after a collision with Sebastian Vettel while fighting for second place two laps earlier. The resulting understeer saw him smash into the side of Ricciardo as the Red Bull attempted to pass him around the outside before Ricciardo took fourth place on the following lap.
The stewards investigated the incident after the race and found that Bottas was to blame.
"The Stewards reviewed video evidence, heard from the driver of car 77 (Valtteri Bottas), the driver of car 3 (Daniel Ricciardo) and the team representatives," a statement said.
"Bottas had a damaged front wing from an earlier incident. As the two cars approached Turn 1, Ricciardo was on the outside of the the turn and gave plenty of room. With the compromised line and less downforce from the front wing Bottas locked up, and collided with Riciardo forcing Riciardo off the track and causing damage. Both cars continued.
"The Stewards ordered a ten second penalty, which will be applied to the final result, along with 2 penalty points."
However, with a comfortable margin to Pierre Gasly in sixth, Bottas retained fifth place in the final classification of the race. Bottas explained his version of events in both collisions after the race.
"With Seb, he had a good run into Turn 2, we'd a good battle at Turn 1, I still had my nose inside at Turn 2, he was on the outside," Bottas said. "He turned in very early and for me there was nowhere to go. We touched, I was the only one which got damage. Fair enough, I think racing incident.
"With Daniel, pretty much a similar thing. I was more next to him on the inside. I had no half of my front wing, so I was locking up as well. I'm sure he saw that I was going quite quick into the corner but he still turned in, and then we touched."