30/07/2025 21:00
Heading into the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull found itself
in something akin to no man's land. Ferrari and Mercedes were
locked into a fierce battle for the drivers' and constructors'
championships, but Red Bull was 101 points behind the Scuderia in
third place, and 79 points ahead of Force India. Fortunately,
though, the RB13 in Daniel Ricciardo's hands had been enjoying a
rich vein of form - indeed, the best of the Australian's career,
with five straight podiums from the last six races, including a win
in the chaotic Azerbaijan GP. He finished fifth at Silverstone,
having started 19th after a turbo failure in qualifying.
Meanwhile, though, across the garage, Max Verstappen was having a
dreadful run of luck. Hungary was round 11 of the season, and
Verstappen had just 57 points to his name, following five
retirements, three P5s, one P4 and third in China to his name. The
tight, twisty Hungaroring was expected to be a Ferrari track, owing
to the short wheel-base of the SF-70 as Vettel roared to pole ahead
of Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton. Verstappen
out-qualified Ricciardo by just 0.021s for fifth, but only one of
them would see the end of the first lap. The article continues
below. On the run to Turn 1, Hamilton was boxed in behind Bottas,
allowing Verstappen to drive around the outside, whilst Ricciardo
was able to cut back and out-drag Hamilton on the run to Turn 2,
with the Dutchman on the inside and the Australian on the outside.
Vettel led from Raikkonen, Bottas, Verstappen, Ricciardo, and
Hamilton, but Ricciardo was quickly eliminated. Ricciardo was
ahead at the apex, and under today's racing rules, would have had
the right to the corner, but Verstappen locked up and rammed into
the left-hand sidepod of the sister RB13, destroying it.
Ricciardo's car was spraying fluid all over the track as he spun at
Turn 3, pulling immediately off, and into retirement. He asked
engineer Simon Rennie "was that who I think it was?", to which
Rennie, who has engineered Verstappen in the 2025 Austrian and
Belgian GPs due to Gianpiero Lambiase's absence, simply replied:
'Yes.' Ricciardo then branded Verstappen as a "f**king sore loser"
and stuck his middle finger up at Verstappen as he passed by on the
next lap. For the incident, the FIA stewards handed Verstappen a
10-second time penalty, but then-team boss Christian Horner
defended Verstappen's actions. "I think they were perhaps a little
zealous when you look at Bottas' move in Barcelona," Horner said at
the time, referring to a Turn 1 move from Bottas that eliminated
Raikkonen and Verstappen in Spain, which went unpunished. "We have
talked about racing incidents happening, and I see that as a racing
incident. "Yes, Max made a mistake. He stuck his hand up. He has
apologised to his team-mate. Daniel has accepted that apology, and
it happens." The article continues below. 891633893304135681 LAP
7/70: VER given a 10 second penalty for RIC collision ⏱
#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Mua8EIMwkq — Formula 1 (@F1)
July 30, 2017 The Hungary aftermath Verstappen, with his penalty,
went onto finish in fifth place, just behind Hamilton who had
swapped back with Bottas as per a team order, costing him a
podium. Hamilton had been released to attack the Ferrari pair up
front as Raikkonen was playing rear-gunner to Vettel who was
suffering from steering wheel issues, but the Mercedes could not
pass Raikkonen. Hamilton ceded position out of the final corner to
allow Bottas to take his P3, as Vettel headed into the summer break
leading the standings by 14 points from Hamilton as Ferrari trimmed
Mercedes' lead to 39 points. As for Ricciardo and Verstappen, it
would not be their final collision as team-mates, with the fallout
from the more infamous double wipeout the next year in Azerbaijan
being a key part of Ricciardo's decision to leave for Renault in
2019.
