'Dirty' Ricciardo should have been punished, not Vettel - Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneve says Daniel Ricciardo ought to have been the driver punished during the Canadian Grand Prix, not Sebastian Vettel, for the Australian's conduct in battle with Valtteri Bottas. Vettel caught a time penalty for a manoeuvre ahead of Lewis Hamilton, losing the race win as a result.

Vettel got out of shape and left the track between Turns 3/4, squirming back onto the circuit in the path of Hamilton, who had to brake to avoid a collision.

It was deemed worthy of a five-second penalty, effectively giving the race win to Hamilton.

On the other hand, Ricciardo went unpunished for weaving ahead of Bottas as the Mercedes man approached on the 320+ km/h back straight with DRS enabled.

Both drivers described as a hard, but fair fight, but 1997 world champion Villeneuve strongly disagreed.

"I wasn't surprised by Vettel's penalty, because it's often the opposite of what happens," Villeneuve told Motorsport.com.

"Ricciardo deserved a penalty for the way he drove in a straight line, and he didn't get one. It's often been like that.

"It's bad for F1 anyway. It ruined the race because it was a bad call, not because, 'Oh, it should have been a different winner.'

"If Vettel had done something dirty or bad, like Ricciardo did on the straight, that would have deserved a penalty, and that would have been fine, even though it would have been another Lewis win."

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