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Ricciardo called Grosjean 'an idiot' after Monaco crash

Daniel Ricciardo: "I didn't want to waste the energy yelling" © Sutton Images

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• News:
• Grosjean hit with grid penalty for Ricciardo collision
  

• Drivers:
• Romain Grosjean
• |
• Daniel Ricciardo

• Teams:
• Lotus F1
• |
• Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo called Romain Grosjean "an idiot" after the pair collided at the Monaco Grand Prix at the weekend.

Ricciardo was running 13th when he was rear-ended by Grosjean at the Nouvelle chicane on the 61st lap. Grosjean was penalised 10 grid places for the Canadian Grand Prix as a result and Ricciardo said he did not want to waste energy yelling at the Lotus driver.

"The impact from the Grosjean crash was pretty hard but the car did its job and I was able to walk away, though the damage to the rear-end was pretty extensive," he said in his Toro Rosso blog. "The chassis should be OK but it was a late night at the track for the guys in the garage sorting it all out.

"For myself it was a trip to see the stewards. I'm not surprised Romain picked up a penalty: we were in the stewards' office together and, to be honest, I didn't need to say much. They had the data and once I saw the video, it was pretty much what I thought it had been. Tom Kristensen [driver steward, eight times Le Mans winner] was there and he's experienced enough to understand that type of collision.

"Sometimes when things like this happen, you want to blow off steam but by that point I really couldn't be bothered shouting and screaming at Grosjean. It was a disappointing end to a deeply unsatisfying weekend and I didn't want to waste the energy yelling 'screw you, what the hell were you thinking?' I just said 'you're an idiot', and that was it.

"If there's a bright side, it's that it didn't cost me any points. It's a funny sort of positive to take away but I'd have felt a lot worse if I'd been in the top ten at that stage."

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