'Hated it': Daniel Ricciardo's hilarious admission after classy act

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo has joked that he 'hated' apologising to Carlos Sainz after their incident at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Sainz saw his race end in the gravel after an opening lap collision with McLaren driver Ricciardo, who ended up apologising to his Spanish rival.

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Sainz's race only lasted two and a half corners after he was spun into the gravel by Ricciardo and left beached.

The safety car was quickly deployed as Sainz, spun around and facing Ricciardo, was forced to retire from the race.

Following the race, Ricciardo was spotted visiting the Ferrari driver's team to apologise for the mistake.

Since the disaster, the Aussie appeared on Trevor Noah's talk show and was how he was able to put his pride away and keep a cordial relationship with his rivals in such an intense sport.

And Ricciardo joked that it wasn't that easy.

“I hated every second of the apology,” Ricciardo joked, before explaining the reasoning behind the apology.

“Probably just with experience and being in it (F1) for so long, I have the maturity to know how much we all put into it and as competitive as we are, we all have something strongly in common.

“There’s only 20 of us in the world that do it, there’s only 20 F1 drivers. You respect everyone’s journey.

“The incident — if I hold myself accountable for something — then I feel like I want to apologise. It’s nothing personal.

“I don’t think everyone would do it but for me, I felt better by doing it so we (can have a) clean slate for the next one."

Sainz comments on Daniel Ricciardo incident

While the pair reportedly left with no bitter feelings, Sainz wasn't impressed immediately after the race.

It was a difficult start as you saw,” Sainz said afterwards.

“But there were still 63 laps left, and even if you lose a position to a McLaren like Lando [Norris] or whatever, it’s still a long race to go, especially in these conditions.

“But unfortunately, I think I left plenty of space for Daniel on the inside but he decided to get on the kerb and understeer into me and that was it for my race.

"Very unlucky – nothing I could do differently there, but it is what it is.

“It's tough. I’m not happy, and it’s tough to go through it, especially in a home race like this, getting the support from fans, wanting to do a good race for them.

Sky Sports commentator Paul Di Resta admitted it was an unfortunate incident so early in the race.

“It is more Daniel’s fault, just unfortunate where they are though," he said.

“But I don’t think there’s much you can do about it. If they’re not allowed to do that, I think you’re not going to see close side-by-side racing.”

Sky Sports analyst Anthony Davidson labelled it an “embarrassing mistake" from Ricciardo.

“It’s a mistake that shouldn’t be happening at this kind of level and it’s a mistake that Carlos Sainz wasn’t expecting from someone usually as polished and as experienced as Daniel Ricciardo," he said.

“To end a Ferrari driver’s race on lap one, I’d be making a quick exit if I was him."

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