Daniel Ricciardo: Red Bull driver set to avoid Hungary penalty

Daniel Ricciardo has won two races this season, and is currently fifth in the championship

Red Bull say Daniel Ricciardo will avoid grid penalties at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix despite his retirement in Germany on Sunday.

The Australian was given a penalty in Hockenheim for using excessive replacement engine parts.

His retirement with an engine problem in Germany then raised questions as to whether he would receive a further penalty at the Hungaroring.

But a Red Bull spokesman said the team did not expect to be taking penalties.

• Who will top the podium in Hungary?

He said the part that failed - which he refused to specify - would be "replaced with one of our quota", which means a used part that still has life in it, thus avoiding the need for a new part and an additional penalty.

Ricciardo took in Germany what is known in F1 as a "tactical penalty".

This means a team who are already on the limit of the number of engine parts permitted per season - and who know that they will need to take new ones that will mean penalties at a point in the near future - take the penalty at a race where they expect to be less competitive, to put themselves in a better position at a track where they could score more points.

Hungary is one of three main tracks where Red Bull hope their car's characteristics - specifically high levels of aerodynamic downforce - will offset the lack of performance of their Renault engine compared with those of Mercedes and Ferrari.

One was Monaco, where Ricciardo won; Hungary is another, and the third is Singapore in September.