Malaysian GP: Bottas hit with grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo

Valtteri Bottas has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix for impeding Daniel Ricciardo in qualifying. The Red Bull driver complained that he had been blocked by the Williams in Q2. "He was on his out-lap," said Ricciardo of Bottas. "I'll have a word with him. There were a lot of times last year, to be honest... "We raced each other a lot in the junior categories and I thought we had a lot of respect for each other, but it's a little difficult how many times he's done that now." Bottas had been nonplussed by Ricciardo's charge. "I think there was nothing special," said the Finn. "We were both pushing. For me, there was no incident." The penalty will drop Bottas from 15th to 18th on the grid, and he admitted to being surprised at its imposition. "I thought it would be OK and there would be no penalties," he said. "It was a difficult situation - we had a radio problem and in Turn 9 the team told me that I had either a gap in front or behind Ricciardo. "So I thought I would try to stay in front. Obviously he was coming very quickly and it was a bit closer in the last few corners than maybe it should've been. "It didn't cost him anything in the end and I wasn't sure whether he was on a timed lap or not."