Daniel Ricciardo's savage sledge for F1 rival after major mishap

Daniel Ricciardo is happy to seize any opportunity to take the mickey out of his Formula One rivals, and he didn't miss Valtteri Bottas after the Finn's mishap in practice for the Styrian GP.

Formula One is returning to Austria this weekend, with Ricciardo hoping to capitalise further on his strong performance for McLaren at the prior French GP, where he finished 6th behind teammate Lando Norris.

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Ricciardo must have been in a good mood upon returning to the Red Bull Ring, jumping on social media to lampoon Mercedes rival Valtteri Bottas after he spun his car in the pitlane during free practice.

That mistake cost Bottas a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's race, with Ricciardo rubbing a little salt in the wound with a cheeky comment on Instagram.

McLaren had already made light of the Mercedes driver, tagging the team in a photo of Bottas pointing the wrong way and asking 'you ok hun?'.

Ricciardo couldn't resist an easy dig either.

“Drifting out of the garage is my thing. Drifting out of the box is not Valtteri’s thing," he commented.

The Aussie star has made a habit of picking on his fellow F1 drivers over the years, with the likes of Norris, Carlos Sainz, and Sergio Perez all falling victim to his sense of humour.

While Bottas had his struggles on-track, it was a different story for Ricciardo - who was satisfied after clocking the second-fastest time in free practice two.

“It feels alright … I know it’s only Friday but for sure, I’d rather be in the top three than 10th saying we’ve got a lot of work to do tonight,” Ricciardo said.

“I think we do a bit of fine-tuning, but we’re certainly not lost. Far from lost actually, so I think we’re in a good place.

“Obviously low fuel pace was good this afternoon. I think we definitely picked something up from the morning. The high fuel, probably a little more to find relative to low fuel but definitely a productive afternoon.”

Verstappen fastest in chaotic Styrian GP practice session

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen was fastest in Styrian Grand Prix practice at Red Bull's home Austrian track.

The 23-year-old Dutchman led both sessions, setting a best lap of one minute 05.910 seconds in the morning and then 1:05.412 in the afternoon.

Mercedes' seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, 12 points behind Verstappen after seven races, ended up fourth.

The Briton had gone faster than Verstappen in the second stint but his lap time was deleted for exceeding the track limits at the last corner when he went wide.

"Lewis was faster but his lap time got deleted so it looks a bit different than what is shown at the moment," said Verstappen.

"But overall it has been quite good for us. Of course a few things to look into but I'm quite happy where the car is at the moment."

Bottas, fourth and 12th, was summoned to stewards after losing rear grip and skidding sideways as he left the Mercedes pits, coming to a halt blocking the pit lane but narrowly missing the wall.

"That's absolutely ridiculous," McLaren said in a radio message to race director Michael Masi. "He could have taken our guys out there."

"Thank God nothing happened," added McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl.

Bottas said he had tried "something different" in getting out of the box.

"It's a normal mistake, it happens," he added.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso was fifth in the afternoon, with Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel sixth and McLaren's Lando Norris seventh.

With AAP

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