Daniel Ricciardo nearly CRASHES on F1 return in Zhou Guanyu close call at Hungarian GP

Ricciardo, Hungary, 2023 — Photo: © LAT Images

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo nearly CRASHES on F1 return in Zhou close call at Hungarian GP

Ricciardo had to slam on the brakes to avoid a big accident at the end of the session

Joe Ellis

Saturday 22 July 2023 13:57 Updated: 14:08

Daniel Ricciardo nearly had a big crash on his F1 return at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Australian finished his flying lap and pulled over to let other cars through as Zhou Guanyu exited the pitlane.

The Chinese racer slowed right down in his Alfa Romeo, thinking Ricciardo was coming through which led to the AlphaTauri man slamming his brakes on to not hit his fellow competitor.

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Ricciardo led his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda but he was only 18th fastest with the Japanese man 20th.

Zhou was 12th fastest but only a fraction of a second off Valtteri Bottas in an encouraging session for Alfa Romeo.

Up in the air

Alfa Romeo have had a tough year but Zhou Guanyu has been matching his rapid team-mate

The true pecking order is really unknown heading into qualifying as some teams opted not to do their soft tyre runs in FP3.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest ahead of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who all used the softest C5 compound.

Lando Norris was highly impressive on the mediums in the McLaren while Alpine and AlphaTauri didn't do any proper low-fuel runs.

Ferrari were slower than on Friday as they finished sixth and seventh on the soft tyre which has left everyone scratching their heads over who is favourite for pole position.