Stroll defended by fellow driver over Ricciardo crash

Nico Hulkenberg has defended Lance Stroll for the controversial Chinese Grand Prix accident involving Daniel Ricciardo.

Stroll has drawn heavy criticism from drivers including Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri, who was also caught up in the incident where the Aston Martin driver rammed Ricciardo as the first safety car was ending in Shanghai.

The Canadian was hit with an in-race penalty by the stewards and awarded penalty points having ended Ricciardo's afternoon, and severely hampered Piastri's after Ricciardo's RB was lifted into the air, and hit the back of Piastri's McLaren.

Both Australians suffered severe diffuser damage, although Piastri held on to take eighth place as Stroll retired.

F1 fans also handed most of the blame on Stroll, but Haas racer Hulkenberg has defended him.

"It was pretty spectacular going into Turn 14," Hulkenberg told media including RacingNews365.

"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.

"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."

Hulkenberg's race

As for his race, Hulkenberg continued his quietly impressive season with a third points finish from five races with 10th place.

He felt that was the maximum on offer, and hailed the team for its turn-around from a tough start to the weekend.

"Especially after how it went [on Friday and Saturday], it was pretty poor and it was a very good reaction and recovery," he added.

"It just shows that everything has to be perfect for us to put ourselves in that position - and we did close to perfect practice sessions.

"One point was all that was available obviously with one of the [cars] from the top five teams not being where it should, and that is all there is at the moment."