Ricciardo hit with two five-second penalties, drops to 11th place

Daniel Ricciardo has been handed two five-second time penalties for overtaking off the track in the frantic final lap of the French Grand Prix, which drops the Renault driver out of the points from seventh to 11th place.

With Lando Norris suffering a hydraulics issue in his McLaren in the closing laps, Ricciardo looked to charge past on the final lap at the chicane on the Mistral straight.

Ricciardo hit with two five-second penalties, drops to 11th place

Daniel Ricciardo has been handed two five-second time penalties for overtaking off the track in the frantic final lap of the French Grand Prix, which drops the Renault driver out of the points from seventh to 11th place.

With Lando Norris suffering a hydraulics issue in his McLaren in the closing laps, Ricciardo looked to charge past on the final lap at the chicane on the Mistral straight.

But after running wide, Ricciardo re-joined in seventh place ahead of Norris, who also went off track, with Kimi Raikkonen going into seventh place with better momentum on the exit of the chicane.

Ricciardo duly fought back and overtook the Finn, with all four of his tyres going over track limits, to retake seventh place where he finished the race.

Ricciardo, along with Norris and Raikkonen, were all summoned to an FIA race stewards’ investigation over the incidents.

The Renault driver has been found the guilty party in both incidents and given separate five-second penalties for each, totalling 10 seconds, which drops him from seventh place to 11th in the final French GP classification.

The penalties see Raikkonen promoted to seventh place, Nico Hulkenberg up to eighth place in the second Renault, Norris up to ninth for McLaren while Pierre Gasly profits to take the final point in 10th place for Red Bull.

Ricciardo has also picked up a total of three penalty points on his race licence for the two incidents, raising his total to five over the last 12 months.

The post-race penalties follow a similar incident which saw Sebastian Vettel lose the Canadian Grand Prix with a five-second time penalty for going off track and then impeding Lewis Hamilton while fighting for the lead.

Ferrari requested a review on Vettel’s penalty but the hearing was thrown out by the FIA after the Italian manufacturer failed to provide any new evidence to overturn the decision.

It isn’t clear if Renault will look to launch a similar appeal but it appears unlikely given the FIA’s analysis into all car telemetry data and television angles on each incident.

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