Safety cars sprang to life in the Chinese Grand Prix leading to some lively handbags between Ricciardo and Stroll
Safety cars occasionally create further safety cars, and that was the case in China as a nose-to-tail accident on a safety car restart compromised the races of Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Oscar Piastri and created a further safety car for the debris to be cleared up.
The original safety car to clear the broken-down, struck-in-gear Sauber of Valtteri Bottas had been out for a few laps as the pack lined up behind it in the order of Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Pérez, Sainz, Alonso (on new soft tyres), Russell, Piastri, Ricciardo and Stroll. The safety car indicated it was coming in and so Verstappen took over as the dictator of the pace as the cars streamed into the final hairpin, everyone waiting to react to whenever Verstappen decided to sprint away.
The incident looks to have been initiated by Sainz, doubtless aware of how quick Alonso would be on his soft tyres, initially backing the Aston up, so as to give himself space to accelerate into when racing began. As he then closed back up on Pérez in anticipation, so he had to back off to avoid hitting the Red Bull. This in turn forced Alonso to lock up and the whole concertina effect unfolded to a point of hard impact as Stroll hit the back of Ricciardo, lifting the RB’s wheels clear of the track and nudging it into Piastri.
Stroll was awarded a 10sec penalty, as it wa
