A dramatic start at the openi🌠ng sequence of corners in Mexico was one of the main talking points from an otherwise fairly uneventful 18th round of the 2021 F1 season. 

Ricciardo locked his front-right wheel 🦂on approach to the firs෴t corner and ended up tagging poleman Bottas as they turned in, pitching the Mercedes driver into a spin. 

The incident triggered further chaos be🅘hind as Esteban Ocon made contact with and eliminated both Mick Scꦡhumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. 

Bottas and Ricciardo were able to continue but were left at the back of the field, with neither driver able to recover to the points.&nbs𓆏p;

Speaking directly after the race and before he had the chance 🌊to view a reply, Ricciardo insisted he felt he had everything "more or less under control” under braking. 

“It all happ𓂃ened very quickly,” Ricciardo said. “I had a very good start and there was room on the inside of the Red Bull, so I went down the very inside of the track.&n𒁃bsp;

“I felt that under braking everything was more or less under control. At the last moment before the apex𒈔 evﷺerything tightened up. 

“I locked up a bit and then Valtteri came down. I hit him so there is some of it i🍒n there for me? I want to have a look at it. 

“But it does not change th𓂃e outcome. First lap incidents are painful. 

“I do not have a ton of them but you go from potentially fourth or fifth to last in a matter of seconds. That 🍃was a sh🐟ame.” 

The incident was noted but never inves🍨tigated by the stewards, something which Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted came as a surprise. 

“I think the stewards should have a look into it but at that point,” hꦚe said. “In hindsight, it was surprising that they didn’t look at a penalty.” 

Bottas sp𓂃ent the maj𝓰ority of the race staring at the back of Ricciardo’s gearbox as he struggled to find a way past the McLaren. 

While Wolff acknowledged t🌱hat a penalty for Ricciardo "would have helped in the race”, he ultimately conceded “at that moment our train has left the station anyway”.

McLaren argued the coming together was a typicaꦗl first lap racing incident.

Just two races ♌earlier at the Turkish Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly was given a time penalty for tapping Fernando Alonso into a sp🉐in at the first corner. 

On that occasion, t༺he AlphaTauri driver was deemed ‘wholly’ to blame by the stewards, who did not consider the incident to be an “unavoidable lap one turn one contact between two cars﷽”. 

There were different circumstances here, including nature of the first turn at Istanbul Park and the ꦕfact the race start was wet. 

“You’ve got to look at each and every incident and see how it goes,” said FIA race director Michael Masi, who did not have the chance to discuss the incident with the stewards or review the incident prior to speꦿaking to the media. 🐓;

“For starters, Turkey was wet, this was dry. It was a complet༺ely different corner configuration.” 

Asked ifღ Ricciardo making the apex was a factor in the decision not to launch an investigation, Masi repꩵlied: “That could be a scenario, having a look at the proximity of the cars, where they all are compared to each other.

“There’s a whole lot o🍨f different factors that come into it. The🀅 stewards’ view was that it was on this occasion a Turn 1 racing incident.”