Daniel Ricciardo has driven an F1 car for the first time since breaking his hand at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Ricciardo took the wheel of a Red Bull RB7 as part of a demonstration run in Nashville ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
The Australian has been sidelined since crashing in Free Practice 2 at Zandvoort in late August.
The impact saw the eight-time race winner break his left hand, for which he underwent surgery.
That necessitated time on the sidelines and provided Liam Lawson an opportunity to step into the Scuderia AlphaTauri seat Ricciardo vacated.
Ricciardo is expected to return to competition this weekend, with the promotional outing for Red Bull a strong indication of his return to fitness.
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The Nashville outing was flagged by Red Bull boss Christian Horner as one Ricciardo would complete when he rejoined the team as third driver at the start of the year.
It was one of a number of promotional outings, which was also to include an appearance at the Nurburgring Nordschleife (which he missed due to injury), that were planned.
However, with Nyck de Vries failing to fire at Scuderia AlphaTauri alongside Yuki Tsunoda, Ricciardo was promoted back to race driver with the Italian-based sister operation.
He made his return at the Hungarian Grand Prix, competing there and at the Belgian GP prior to F1’s summer break.
When the season resumed at the end of August, Ricciardo crashed as he attempted to avoid Oscar Piastri at Hugenholtz (Turn 3) at Zandvoort just minutes into Free Practice 2.
Ricciardo made an appearance at the Singapore Grand Prix in support of Scuderia AlphaTauri, though his attention has been focused on his recovery.
He is expected to be back in action at the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas this weekend.
Danny Ric 👉 Riding into town 🤘 #RedBullShowrun pic.twitter.com/g9hOv6wVKS
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 15, 2023
Daniel Ricciardo is back. #RedBullShowrun pic.twitter.com/naZHtwa9kn
— Madeline Coleman (@mwc13_3) October 14, 2023
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