Daniel Ricciardo is set for some time out of the car after a crash at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The Australian broke a bone in his left hand during a practice session, ruling him out of the remainder of the weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo injury: What happened to Australian F1 driver at Dutch Grand Prix?
Ricciardo crashed during the early stages of Friday’s practice session at Circuit Zandvoort.
The AlphaTauri driver went into the barrier at Turn 3, appearing to be slow to notice McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had crashed there shortly beforehand.
Ricciardo, whose steering wheel snapped, immediately told his team that his hand was in pain as he struggled to leave the car following the accident.
Hospital results later showed Ricciardo had broken a metacarpal in his left hand.
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“The day was going pretty well,” Ricciardo told AlphaTauri’s official channel.
“We made some changes and the few laps I did on the hard tyre before the crash felt good; we were building up and improving.
Alonso passed Norris for second at the exit of Turn 3 before Verstappen and Alonso pitted for inters at the end of the second lap. Norris stayed out but Russell passed him at Turn 1.
Perez, the first car on inters, quickly surged past Norris and Russell to lead by the middle of lap three, with Zhou also rising to second thanks to his early stop.
Norris pitted a lap later (dropping to 12th) but Russell stayed out on slicks for another slow tour, and he tumbled to 14th, one spot behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Perez led Zhou, Gasly and Verstappen, who was 14s behind the leader by lap five. Verstappen barged his way past Gasly at Turn 3, while Alonso moved back into the top five, running ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen zapped past Zhou at Turn 3 on lap seven and was now within 10s of leader Perez and carving into his lead.
Zhou and Alonso pitted for slicks on lap 11, with Verstappen doing likewise a lap later. As Perez went a lap longer, Verstappen was able to undercut him to take the lead by 3.5s.
Alonso made short work of Zhou, with Gasly and Sainz also moving ahead of him. Leclerc suffered another delay when Ferrari changed his front wing when he changed to slicks, dropping him to 13th, and he’d later retire due to the floor damage sustained after he’d clipped Oscar Piastri’s McLaren early on.
Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams at Turn 8, which brought out the safety car on lap 17.
The race restarted on lap 22 with Verstappen leading Perez, Alonso, Gasly, Sainz and Zhou. Alex Albon, who didn’t pit his Williams for inters, surged back to seventh, passing Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and then took sixth from Zhou.
Verstappen led by 5s at half distance, with Alonso falling 4s behind Perez in third. Sainz pitted from fifth on lap 42 for more softs, safe in the knowledge that Gasly had a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane and he gained fourth when Gasly stopped on lap 47.
Perez pitted again but was 8s behind Verstappen when he did so. Alonso suffered a slow stop when his left-front tyre wouldn’t release, which briefly promoted Sainz to third.
The start saw Verstappen get away cleanly from Norris and Alonso overtake Russell to jump into third. The rain fell heavily moments after, forcing several drivers to pit for the first of many tire changes.
Astonishingly, Ferrari did not have the new ones ready for Leclerc and the team didn’t seem to notice he had a damaged front wing — yet another blunder in a series of mistakes from Ferrari this season and last.
Perez came in for his change a lap before Verstappen, who came out 10 seconds behind Perez but soon started shredding the gap. With the track drying, Verstappen came in for another change while Ferrari changed Leclerc’s front wing. Perez came in on the following lap, this time, and emerged three seconds behind the new leader Verstappen.
Logan Sargeant started from 10th place — the highest spot on the grid for an American driver since 1993 — but crashed for the second time in as many days, bringing out the safety car on Lap 17 of 72 of the high-banking circuit.
“I don’t know what happened, man” an exasperated Sargeant told his team.
Sargeant, who has not scored a point in his debut season and is fighting to save his seat, sat on a grass bank with his head down.
On the track, Verstappen held off Perez comfortably following the safety car restart, with Alonso in third. Perez was drifting further behind Verstappen while Leclerc rolled back to the garage.
He will hope his fortunes improve next weekend at Monza, Ferrari’s home track where Verstappen can set a new F1 record if he wins.
It would be an appropriate place to do so, considering Vettel won his first race there in 2008.
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