Daniel Ricciardo has fought back from a 10 second penalty to surge through the field at the Mexico Grand Prix.
The Australian, who has endured a nightmare 2022 which saw him dumped by McLaren for next season, was battling Yuki Tsunoda for 11th when he collided with the AlphaTauri driver.
Tsunoda, who was sent hurtling off the track and was eventually forced to retire, immediately vented his frustrations on team radio.
Watch Every Practice, Qualifying & Race of The 2022 MotoGP World Championship Live & Ad-Break Free During Racing on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
“What the f*** is he doing,” Tsunoda raged.
Race stewards immediately investigated the lap 51 incident and judged Ricciardo to be at fault. He was slapped with a 10 second penalty that F1 legend Martin Brundle labelled harsh.
“Ten seconds, I thought that was quite harsh for that,” he said.
“Five seconds seemed fair.
“It was clear though that Daniel was at fault. He needed to be alongside Tsunoda or get out of the way earlier.”
The penalty seemed to light a fire under Ricciardo. He quickly overtook McLaren teammate Lando Norris before surging past Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Esteban Occon was the next driver in his side as Ricciaro set the Mexico Grand Prix alight.
“It has really fired him up, fired him up in a treat,” Brundle said on the coverage.
“He’s a candidate for driver of the day with all the overtaking he’s doing. He’s so charged up.”
Fellow F1 great David Croft then lauded Ricciardo’s driving and return to form.
“Welcome back Daniel, we missed you,” he said.
“He’s driven with fire in the belly. Completely different to the United States just a week ago.”
Ricciardo held on for seventh place, even with the time penalty, to secure his best result since the Singapore Grand Prix in October and third best of the season.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen meanwhile surged to his 14th win of the season, overtaking Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel for the most in one season.
The F1 world, meanwhile, shared the sentiment around Ricciardo’s resurrgence.
