Daniel Ricciardo charged to victory in a dramatic Chinese Grand Prix, while his Red Bull Racing team-mate Max Verstappen was involved in a contentious clash with points leader Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari ace Vettel started from pole in Shanghai, and early on looked on course to take his third win of the year. But Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas pitted a few laps before Vettel and put in a charge on fresh tyres to grab the lead.
Matt Prior: How can we make F1 more exciting?
But the grand prix turned due to a mid-race safety car. While Ferrari and Mercedes left their drivers out, both Red Bull racers stopped for fresh tyres, giving them extra pace in the closing laps.
Verstappen looked on course to benefit most but, when he ran off track trying to pass the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, Ricciardo grabbed the initiative. He stormed past Hamilton, Vettel and finally Bottas to take victory. Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari.
Here are five more Chinese Grand Prix takeaways.
It’s never dull when Ricciardo wins
“I don’t seem to win boring races,” said Ricciardo on the podium – and he’s right. The Australian has now won six grands prix, and has started fourth on the grid or lower in all of them.
Ricciardo’s charge included a late but clean lunge down the inside of Hamilton at the hairpin. “Sometimes you’ve just got to lick the stamp and send it,” explained the Australian.
Ricciardo actually had his biggest drama on Saturday, when his TAG-branded Renault power unit failed in final practice (below). His mechanics finished changing the unit with minutes to spare in the first part of qualifying.
“The mechanics worked their butts off,” said Ricciardo. “The win was the real reward for all their hard work.”
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Not so young anymore!
Enough with the excuse of being young and hot-headed! This is Max's 5th season in F1 and should know by now how to overtake someone.
He is very exciting to watch, no doubt, but his bumper car antics must stop, this is not touring cars. I would propose a football-style yellow and red card system; 1 yellow card per infraction and 2 yellow cards means a red card, giving a 1 race ban. For everyone, of course, not just Max.
American sport...
Please get used to the "safety car situation"...americans want entertainment and the sport is now an american owned sport...weaning myself off F1 now before the withdrawal symptoms set in.
As I've said
The safety car thing is joke. 3 GP and 2 have been decided by the timing of the safety car.
As to Max, you're right Symanski he was meant to be the next Messiah but at this rate he's more likely to get a ban than a F1 championship. And why doesn't Riciardo get more credit than the Messiah, afterall he beat him last year by a substantial number of points.
xxxx wrote:
Agree, pitting under safety car should be banned as it really shouldn't be the deciding factor, agree also that Ricciardo doesn't get enough credit.