27 August 2023 , 11:04
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Oscar Piastri is grateful to compatriot Daniel Ricciardo for avoiding his stranded McLaren as they crashed in Friday practice at Zandvoort.
Piastri span at turn three during the second session of the day. And Ricciardo was not far behind him on track, travelling at speed as he went into the corner blind before spotting the McLaren stopped at the top of the banked corner.
As the older Aussie later explained, his two choices were to either smash into the other car or steer into the softer Tec-pro barrier. he chose the latter option, though it came at a personal cost as he was still holding on to the steering wheel when the impact came.
The wheel smacked into his left hand, breaking a metacarpal. It ruled Ricciardo out of the rest of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend and he flew to Spain on Saturday to consult top surgeon Xavier Mir, who operated on Lance Stroll's broken wrist earlier this year, over the injury.
"Obviously, I hope he has a speedy recovery. It's never nice to see somebody get hurt," said Piastri of his fellow countryman. "I know he had the choice of hitting me or the wall, so I'm thankful he chose the wall. But, yeah, I just hope he recovers quickly, and we see him back on the grid."
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Asked about his own mishap at that corner, the McLaren driver added: "The way you have to attack the banking, it's not the smoothest transition in the world. With a kind of strange behaviour on the tyres and the car, it sort of reacts a little bit differently sometimes to what you would normally expect.
"And obviously the wall is a metre to the right so if you get it wrong – as I proved – it ends badly. So it's a tricky corner – definitely. You've kind of got to hope the grip is there when you get into the banking. I think I was maybe a bit ambitious, but it's definitely a tricky one."
Ricciardo is highly likely to miss next weekend's trip to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix and could be absent for more races, depending on his recovery. If he does require surgery, then his injury layoff will be longer.
Liam Lawson has stepped in to make his Formula 1 debut at Zandvoort. And the Red Bull junior, whose next race in the Japanese Super Formula championship is two months away, will most likely continue to fill in for Ricciardo at AlphaTauri for as long as is needed.