Stroll smashed into the RB on Lap 29 as the field prepared for a Safety Car restart.

The impact lifted the rear of Ricciardo’s RB and pushed him into Oscar Piastri ahead, damaging all three cars.

Ricciardo carried on initially but was forced to retire with damage to his floor while Piastri nursed his McLaren to the finish line eighth.

Stroll picked up damage to the front of his car, which was repaired in the pits as he remained in the race.

Officials slapped the Canadian with a 10-second penalty for the clash but he was unwilling to accept that he was to blame.

“Someone braked at the front of the pack, I don’t know who, and then everyone stops,” Stroll argued.

“The car in front of me just stopped from like 60 to zero, so a really stupid incident. It was one of those.”

Ricciardo was critical of Stroll’s actions immediately prior to the crash, with onboard vision from the Aston Martin appearing to show him not looking at the RB ahead.

Instead, his attention is focused on the apex of the Turn 14 right-hander and as a result was ill-prepared to react to the field bunching up.

“You can see his helmet; he’s looking at the apex,” Ricciardo told Sky Sports.

“It looked like he wasn’t looking at me and I think it shows how hard he hit me, he was clearly focused on something else.”

It’s an opinion seemingly shared officials who noted that “Car 18 ought to have anticipated the pace of the cars in front particularly Car 3 and should have prepared to brake accordingly.”

Stroll didn’t agree, suggesting the concertina effect led to the crash and not his actions.

“It’s just because of the fact that I hit the guy, but someone hit the brakes and caused the concertina. I don’t know who,” he reasoned of the penalty.

“I got a penalty because of the end result that I hit Ricciardo, but it’s not like everything was normal and I just slammed into the back of him.

“There was a really odd concertina effect that I would have liked to see the stewards take into consideration maybe a little bit more.

“I don’t think it was him,” he added when asked whether Ricciardo was to blame.

“Everyone just slammed on the brakes and he was the guy in front of me, so I don’t think he slammed on the brakes.

“It was, like I said, the concertina effect.”