During the first restart after the safety car phase, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo collided. Stroll rear-ended Ricciardo and was given a ten-second penalty, but Stroll refuses to take responsibility for the collision.
“An accordion effect,” Stroll replied after the race about what happened when he hit Daniel Ricciardo on the restart after the safety car phase. “Someone in front of me braked, I don’t know who, and then everyone braked.”
“The car in front of me suddenly braked from about 60 km/h to zero and then there was the collision, it was really stupid, just one of those moments.”
During the race, Lance Stroll made it clear over the on-board radio that he did not agree with the ten-second time penalty he received for the collision. “That’s really a joke,” Stroll said at the time, and after the race Stroll was of course asked for an explanation.
“It’s just because I hit someone that I’m being penalized, but someone in front braked and it created an accordion effect.”
“I don’t know, but I get a penalty because the end result is that I hit Ricciardo, but it’s not like everything was normal, I just crashed into him from behind.”
“It was a really strange accordion effect and I would like the stewards to take that into consideration a little more.”