Daniel Ricciardo was well known as the king of the late brakers earlier in his career, but he could not quite recreate his former trademark move on Yuki Tsunoda in Mexico.
Both drivers were on the hunt for points coming into the latter stages of the race when the Australian attempted an ambitious overtake on the Japanese driver, going for a gap that maybe was not there.
Going into Turns 5 and 6, Ricciardo attempted to go down the inside of Tsunoda, but with the AlphaTauri driver being ahead and shutting the door on the 33-year-old, the pair made contact which eventually forced Tsunoda to retire from the race.
Tsunoda did manage to limp back to the pits but instead of changing his front wing, the mechanics spotted some terminal damage, wheeling the car into the garage instead of sending him back out.
READ: Toto Wolff ‘annoyed’ by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell
“What the f*ck is he doing? How does he think he can overtake there,” yelled Tsunoda after the incident, clearly enraged by the Australian who had begun to grow frustrated stuck behind him.
Unsurprisingly Ricciardo was handed a 10-second penalty for the lap 51 incident but this will come as little consolation for Tsunoda who is in desperate need of some points scoring finishes, only finishing in the top 10 four times this season.
Ricciardo on the other hand was inspired by the penalty, becoming a man possessed on the soft tyres to tear through the field and make the punishment irrelevant.
The Australian stormed past his teammate Lando Norris and both Alpines, while creating enough of a gap to Esteban Ocon to come home in seventh place even after 10 seconds were added to his time, leading him to be voted driver of the day.
READ: Fernando Alonso hits out at journalists after Lewis Hamilton fires jibe
Tsunoda will be looking to end the season on a high before the change in driver line-up for next year at AlphaTauri, with Nyck de Vries taking the seat of Alpine bound Pierre Gasly.
Tsunoda will be looking to cement himself as the primary driver in the team despite being the younger of the two, entering his third season in Formula One.
The 22-year-old driver is currently level on points with Mick Schumacher in the drivers’ championship, and only one point behind Lance Stroll, so will be looking to make up a few places in the final two rounds of the season.