Daniel Ricciardo may need surgery on his broken wrist, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Key points:
Daniel Ricciardo has gone to Barcelona for treatment on his broken wristThe Australian suffered the injury after a crash during practice in the NetherlandsNew Zealand driver Liam Lawson has replaced Ricciardo for this Sunday’s race
Ricciardo, who drives for Red Bull’s secondary team AlphaTauri, broke his wrist after crashing into the barrier during second practice at Zandvoort in the Netherlands on Friday.
The Australian was ruled out of Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, but he could miss more races.
“He’s headed off today to Barcelona, they may even have a little operation on him tomorrow to just tidy up where that break is. It’s quite a clean break,” Horner told the UK’s Sky Sports.
“Then of course it’s all about the recuperation and how long that takes. Any normal human being would probably be about 10-12 weeks but we know that these guys aren’t normal.
“So it will all be about the recovery process — how long that will take. Is it going to be three weeks, is it a month, is it six weeks? Nobody really knows.”
Ricciardo was not racing at the start of the season, instead being Red Bull’s reserve driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
The Australian drove the last two races before the mid-year break, after replacing Dutchman Nick De Vries for AlphaTauri.
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has taken Ricciardo’s seat for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Lawson was slowest in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Max Verstappen on pole for home grand prix
Max Verstappen will start the Dutch Grand Prix on pole, as he aims to equal the record for most consecutive F1 race wins.
Saturday’s qualifying was stopped twice during the rain-affected session, with Logan Sargent and Charles Leclerc both crashing out.
McLaren’s Lando Norris threatened to take pole for much of the session, but Verstappen hooked up a terrific lap at the end to secure his eighth pole of the season.
“It was a very tricky qualifying,” Verstappen said.
“It was all about putting your laps in, but also staying out of trouble, I think we managed that quite well.”
Verstappen has won the previous eight Formula 1 races and can equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins with victory in front of his home fans.
Australian Oscar Piastri was eighth fastest in qualifying, continuing what has been an impressive season from the rookie driver.
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