RICCIARDO STEALS VICTORY IN CHINA
Australian Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo has starred in China as he took victory in Shanghai ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen.
After a turbo failure nearly derailed the Australian’s qualifying session, he put in a clinical performance after the pit stops to seize the advantage and take a comfortable victory ahead of Bottas, who held out the chasing pair of Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.
A Safety Car after both Toro Rossos collided was the changing point of the race as Ricciardo and teammate Max Verstappen made the most of the halt in proceedings to make a second pit stop for soft tyres, but it was Ricciardo that took full advantage.
Ricciardo first took care of Raikkonen, then after Verstappen and Hamilton tangled leaving the Dutchman to take the grass enabling Ricciardo to take fourth. Ricciardo made a superb late braking pass on Hamilton at the hairpin to take third before attacking his former teammate Sebastian Vettel for second, which he did with DRS on the back straight.
The final pass on Bottas was daring, but the Mercedes driver saw the Red Bull and gave just enough room for Ricciardo to get through. From there, the Australian bolted and was never headed to the flag.
Vettel had dominated the early section of the race but was jumped by Bottas after the first pit stops and worse was to come as after he was overtaken by Ricciardo, Verstappen had a go at the hairpin that failed and spun the pair. Vettel quickly fell off the pace and dropped to eighth after Nico Hulkenberg moved through amid speculation the Ferrari had suffered damage. Verstappen was given a 10s penalty for the incident.
Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton was never in the race as he dropped to fifth at the start after Verstappen made a great start but finished fourth only after Verstappen’s 10s penalty was added to the result.
The race opens up the Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship with Vettel banking 56 points so far this season, 11 ahead of Hamilton. Bottas sits on 40 points, three ahead of Ricciardo, while Raikkonen rounds out the top five on 30.
The next round of the title heads to Baku for the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan in two weeks.
Full Results:
Position | Driver | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 56 | 1h35m36.380s |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 56 | 8.894s |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 56 | 9.637s |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 56 | 16.985s |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | 56 | 20.436s |
6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 56 | 21.052s |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 56 | 30.639s |
8 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Renault | 56 | 35.286s |
9 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 56 | 35.763s |
10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 56 | 39.594s |
11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 56 | 44.050s |
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 56 | 44.725s |
13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Renault | 56 | 49.373s |
14 | Lance Stroll | Williams/Mercedes | 56 | 55.490s |
15 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams/Mercedes | 56 | 58.241s |
16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 56 | 1m02.604s |
17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 56 | 1m05.296s |
18 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso/Honda | 56 | 1m06.330s |
19 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber/Ferrari | 56 | 1m19.066s |
20 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso/Honda | 51 | Not running |
For more of the latest F1 news, pick up the latest issue of Auto Action, on sale now. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.