Daniel Ricciardo furious after being attacked by teammate Yuki Tsunoda during recovery lap: ‘What the fuck?’

Daniel Ricciardo has called his Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda “immature” after the Japanese star “bombed” him following the Formula One season opener in Bahrain.

Max Verstappen achieved victory in the race thanks to his teammate Sergio Pérez and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

Australian Oscar Piastri finished eighth, while Ricciardo and Tsunoda finished 13th and 14th.

Tsunoda led Ricciardo for much of the race, but the Australian attacked late on fresher tires and the Japanese driver was told to back off and let Ricciardo pass.

‘Are you kidding me? Now?’ Tsunoda said angrily into the team radio.

Yuki Tsunoda almost collided with the Australian after the race on the recovery lap

Tsunoda continued after the race, sarcastically telling his team over the radio: ‘Yeah, thanks guys, I appreciate it…. He needs to speed the man up. It’s not fast at all.

The 23-year-old remained angry and accelerated Ricciardo on the recovery lap with an attacking dive bomb.

Tsunoda then applied the front brakes and went wide. He then accelerated past the Australian and came within inches of hitting him.

‘What, what the fuck is going on?’ -exclaimed Ricciardo-.

‘I’m sorry. I’ll save it. It’s a damn helmet.

Ricciardo had calmed down when he spoke to the media afterwards.

Asked if he had spoken to his hot-headed team-mate, Ricciardo said: “I’ll let him calm down.” We know what it is like. Obviously during the moment he’s very… that’s Yuki.

‘I’m fine. I’m thinking long term. This is a long season, so we need to be able to work together, so I’m not going to go in there with an angry attitude. “It’s just that we have to be very honest and realistic about what should have happened when he was called.”

Ricciardo said after the race that his teammate was frustrated with the team’s orders.

The Japanese driver said the Australian “wasn’t fast at all” and “needs to accelerate.”

“I got to the radio and was trying to stay calm. A little bit of immaturity, let’s say,” Ricciardo said of his teammate. ‘I’m being very sensible right now, but let’s call it immaturity. He’s obviously frustrated with the team’s call of orders.

‘But let’s face it, this is something we talked about before the race. It was very likely that he would use a soft at the end of the race.

“So I knew there was a chance for me to have a pace advantage at the end,” Ricciardo continued. And if he gets the call, then it will happen.

‘He’s not giving me points. “We are fighting for 13th place, so at least give us the best chance to get at least one car in the points.”

“It’s a long year,” Ricciardo said. “And we have to make sure we’re all okay, so we’ll go back, we’ll have a meeting and we’ll be very mature about it, and we’ll look forward to Jeddah.”