Haas F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg found a few possible excuses for Lance Stroll's incident with Daniel Ricciardo that took place during the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.
The collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll in turn 14 on lap 26 led to a lot of drama after the race, as the Canadian driver refused to take blame for the incident.
The Honey Badger had his chance to score his first points of the season, running in ninth place, but he got rammed from behind by Stroll as cars piled up into the penultimate turn of the Shanghai International Circuit.
Nico Hulkenberg, who was running in 11th place before the incident, gained position twice as a result of this collision and ultimately finished in the P10.
Assessing the messy situation in turn number 14 during the collision, the German F1 driver told the media after the race:
"It was pretty spectacular going into Turn 14. All I saw was Lance not really slowing down and he really lifted up Daniel and I went around the corner and I didn't see them anymore."
As opposed to Stroll, Hulkenberg was able to avoid all the cars braking and stacking up behind each other. However, the 36-year-old suggested it didn't necessarily have to be the Aston Martin driver's fault that he crashed into Ricciardo.
"So I obviously continued because, as far as I was concerned, they crashed, and I couldn't tell if they had continued. I think maybe Lance got caught off guard a bit, it happens."
"This concertina effect is quite big, and I think especially on safety car restarts, and maybe he had cold brakes and didn't have full stopping power."
Nevertheless, stewards saw the incident as the 25-year-old driver's clear fault and were pretty quick to award him a 10-second penalty.
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