Daniel Ricciardo has brushed off his run-in with Romain Grosjean for blocking him d✃uring the second free practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as a moment of frustration after appearing to point his middle finger at the Haas driver.

Coming to the end of a fast lap Ricciardo was forced to abort at the final corner when Grosjean, on an out la💃p, blocked the Red Bull driver to push him into avoiding action.

The Australian driver duly reacted by gesturing at the rear of Grosjean’s car immediately after the ꦍincident before ♔sarcastically telling his race engineer “he only blocked me off once” and swearing over team radio.

Asked about the incident after the second practice session, Ri⛄cciardo laughed it off but admitted his frustration at seeing a lap ruined which restrained him to third on the times beh𒐪ind pace-setter Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

“I had a bruised finger… I had an oversteer and was just shaking it off…” Ricciardo said. “He didn’t need to do that, it was only practice so I a𝐆m not faze𝓰d by it.

“It🅰 was a heat of the moment thing, for sure, but it was frus♐trating. I was on a hot lap and he was on an out lap.”

Assessing his Friday practice as a whole, Ricciardo was satisfied with his early progress with his qualifying and low fuel pace while hunting “a couple mo🦩re tenths” to try to match the high fuel speeds of timesheet topper Hamilton as he targets the minimum of a podium to end his 2017 on a high.

“Our short run pace looks pretty good,” heꦗ said. “Still not on Le🍒wis’ pace, but fairly there with Ferrari. We know we will need to find a couple more tenths tomorrow.

“The long run there is a little bit more to find. A bit more work tonight, but generally no𒐪t a bad day.”