George Russell to Get Surprise Drink From Daniel Ricciardo for Helping Honey Badger Escape Repercussions of 10-Second Penalty

When luck is in your favor, you get help from all sides. From the sides, you can never expect. At least that is what happened with Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico. As George Russell’s unintentional move helped the Honey Badger, and now Ricciardo wants to buy Russell a beer in return!

Talking about this, Ricciardo revealed, “In the last few laps I was pretty nervous because George was so close to getting a blue flag for me and I knew I would lose a couple of seconds with that and that would have dropped me back into Ocon.”

“So I was pushing like hell just to try and hold that two-second gap. Then when I heard he pitted for fastest lap, I was like… he probably doesn’t think it or know it, but I’ll buy him a beer anyways!” further asserted the 33-year-old driver in a report published by the RaceFans.

READ MORE: Not Mercedes Role, Daniel Ricciardo Reveals the Reality Behind Internet-Breaking $110 Toto Wolff Moment

As the Australian driver was hunting down a better track position at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a strange help from Russell helped Ricciardo keep his position till the end. Russell, who pitted with two laps to go, didn’t disturb the pace of the McLaren driver as he was trying to get better off the 10-second time penalty.

How did George Russell help Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico?

Daniel Ricciardo, the driver of the day in Mexico, started the race in P11. As the Honey Badger was moving up the order, he battled his way up the pecking order. However, during a tussle with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in Lap 51, Ricciardo found himself with a 10-second time penalty.

As Tsunoda and Ricciardo fought for position, the Australian hit the Japanese on his sidepod while making a move down the apex. However, it was the AlphaTauri driver who closed in on the Papaya team driver. This resulted in Tsunoda being left with a damaged sidepod and hence had to retire from the race.

After picking up the penalty, Ricciardo moved up to P7 gradually and had a comfortable race up ahead until he had Esteban Ocon of Alpine, breathing down his neck. Even though the Frenchman was far behind, Ricciardo had to make sure he kept the Alpine driver outside of the 10-second gap in order to keep his position.

It was the moment when George Russell of Mercedes had to lap Ricciardo. A blue flag at that point meant the McLaren driver would have had to leave space for the Mercedes driver to pass him. As a result, he’d have lost a couple of seconds there. Losing a couple of seconds meant his P7 would’ve been in jeopardy against Ocon. In the end, Ocon was 12 seconds behind Ricciardo.

WATCH THIS STORY: McLaren F1 Boss Uses Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo to Highlight Major Flaws With Red Bull Racing

Lucky enough for Daniel Ricciardo that he got away with Russell pitting for the fastest lap for an extra point. This meant the Mercedes driver no longer needed to lap Ricciardo. Hence, the Honey Badger could complete the race at his own pace and keep his position.