RB handed heavy fine after Ricciardo-Magnussen near-miss

RB has been fined €5000 by Emilia Romagna Grand Prix stewards for an incident involving Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen during Free Practice 3.

Sergio Perez crashed late on at Imola, leading to a red flag but the session restarted with two minutes on the clock, leading to drivers jockeying for position to try and complete one final flying lap.

The incident between Haas racer Magnussen occured after the chequered flag as he exited Turn 13 - Acque Minerali - and was forced onto the grass at 225kph - 139mph - to avoid the slow Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda on the racing line. 

The stewards felt that as the incident was "potentially dangerous" that an investigation was required, with impeding issues not usually investigated during practice.

It was deemed "unusual" as it happened after the session with Ricciardo entitled to be driving slowly as Magnussen was also allowed to be at racing speed. 

The incident occurred on the run to Turn 14, with the stewards finding that there was "no chance" Ricciardo could have seen Magnussen in time given the closing speeds, and vice versa.

Ricciardo was also found to be avoiding Tsunoda, with the fact of the two-minute restart and drivers trying to grab as much track time as possible also taken into account. 

The stewards felt it was vital that the team gave "sufficient warning" which it "failed to do until Magnussen was at the scene."

A number of "mitigating circumstances" were found, but the stewards felt that the team has "a duty of care even after the checkered flag."

In light of this, the €5,000 fine was issued to the team, reduced "significantly" from previous incidents, with Ricciardo receiving no penalty.