Daniel Ricciardo says he apologised to Nico H𒐪ulkenberg after the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix as following a lap-one c🍨ollision between the pair.

RB driver Ricciardo was battling with Hulkeജnberg in the mid-pack on the opening lap of Sunday’s Monza race when the pair came together at Turn 8.

Ricciardo says he thought he had space, but felt contact - with the Haas of Hulkenberg forced onto💖 the dirt and ceding a place to team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

The Australian was given a five-second time penal𒉰ty for the incident, though later had to serve a 10s penalty after one of his mechanics touched his car while he was serving the original punishment ꦇat his pitstop.

Ricciardo ended a t💃roubled home race 🍷for the RB squad in 13th.

“Ultimately, we weren’t quick enough 🌱today, even without t꧅he penalties,” he said.

“We tried, and I was enjoying the🔯 w𒀰heel-to-wheel racing at the start, but I made contact with Nico in Turn 8.

“I sp꧑oke to him after the race, I thou🅷ght we had space, but felt the contact so didn’t give him enough room, and I apologised.

“It’s tough as you ๊race hard but the smallest margins mꦕake a difference.

“The car felt ok after, and we pushed as hard as we could with what we had. I w♎as trying to get the maximum out of the car from Friday afternoon to today.

“Personally, I feel a lot better this weekend, and we were close to scoring points🌠.”

Tsunoda left 'frustrated'

RB’s Italian GP was “dictated by Hulkenberg”, according to team Laurent Mekies, as a collision between the Haa𒊎s driver and Yuki Tsunoda ultimately ended the ൩Japanese driver’s race.

“I’m pretty frustrated, it’s a shame as my race finished a few laps after the start due to a🅺 contact with Nico,” Tsunoda said.

“I tried to leave as much space as possible, but it seemed he loc꧅ked up, causing him to lose control and craꩵsh into me.

“Unfortunately, we had to🦹 retire the car as we got some d൲amage on the floor.

“I felt it straight away and tried to continue, ღbut the car was sliding around and I simply wasn’t able to drive it.

“We have Baku and Singapore n🔥ext, our car should pe𝔉rform well there, so hopefully we’ll have good weekends ahead.”

Mekies’ frustrations with the Tsunoda ✅incident stem from the fact he lost valuable track time in the updated RB car brought to Monza.

“As for today’s💖 race, one could say it was dictated b𒐪y Hulkenberg, with Daniel given a  five-second penalty, having forced him of the track, before Nico then drove into Yuki, leading to us retiring the car,” he said.

“The most frustrating aspect of Yuki’s retirement is that we lost 40 laps that wou♔ld have increased our understanding of the updates we introduced here.

“Daniel then received a further 10-ꦬsecond penalt🏅y because we didn’t execute the first one correctly.

“We will nꦐeed to review our procedures in this scenario and learn from to𝄹day’s mistake. These things happen, but our pit crew work has generally been exceptional this season.”