Renault's Daniel Ricciardo has admitted to a moment of panic which led to his collision with the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Whilst chasing down Kvyat on lap 30, Ricciardo out-braked himself into Turn 3 whilst trying to pass the Russian on the inside, Kvyat was surprised by the move and had little time to react and was unable to immediately recover back onto the circuit.
In a moment of panic, the Australian tried to recover his race as quickly as possible and engaged reverse in his Renault R.S.19 and moved back, clattering into the Kvyat's Toro Rosso which was still stuck behind him. The collision subsequently forced both drivers to retire from the race.
As punishment for the manoeuvre on his former Red Bull team-mate, Ricciardo will have to take a three-place grid penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix.
"I don’t feel good about what happened," Ricciardo told Sky Sports. "I know what happened but at the time it was looking quite good for us.
"We were starting to pick up the pace and closing in on Daniil, I saw a gap and thought I’ll have a go. It is always tight into 3 but initially, I had the commitment and thought I’d pull it off.
"Then I felt I was going to start to lock and miss the corner, so then at that point as soon as I went down the escape road it was just a sense of urgency and a bit of panic. Just trying to minimize damage and lose as little time as possible.
"So I found reverse and started going and to be honest I had no idea he was there. I guess the urgency stopped me from looking. When I went long, I just thought he’d have cut back and stayed on track, but I was just trying to minimize the mistake I made which turned into another mistake.
"So kind of crappy on my part. I certainly feel bad for the team, and for Dani obviously it is not cool, but for the team, there is more than that. So the positive was the pace but it is not the way I wanted it to end up."
