Villeneuve says Ricciardo deserved a penalty more than Vettel
F1 News
1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve says that Daniel Ricciardo deserved a penalty for defending against Valtteri Bottas on the back straight more than Sebastian Vettel deserved his penalty for impeding Lewis Hamilton in a dangerous re-entry to the track.
Bottas was stuck behind the Australian just over halfway into the race when he was forced to lift off on the back straight due to Ricciardo's defensive driving.
This incident never went under investigation by the stewards, unlike Vettel's incident, which led to a five second time penalty for the German, gifting the win to Hamilton.
Villeneuve told Autosport: "I wasn't surprised by Vettel's penalty, because it's often the opposite of what happens.
"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, '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."