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Shanghai (Reuters): Daniel Ricciardo made a string of thrilling overtaking moves to snatch a surprise Chinese Grand Prix victory on Sunday after a safety car strategy gamble by his Red Bull team paid off handsomely.
The Australian, who started sixth after almost missing qualifying, made the most of fresher tyres to finish 8.8 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes.
“I don’t seem to win boring races,” he grinned from the podium, before chugging the champagne from his racing boot in a trademark ‘shoey’.
“They are all pretty fun but that was unexpected.”
Kimi Raikkonen took third place for Ferrari but title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both endured trying afternoons, the four times world champions ending up fourth and eighth respectively.
“I was in no-man’s land today,” said Hamilton. “I had no pace.”
Vettel, who won the first two races of the season for Ferrari, saw his lead over Hamilton slashed from 17 points to nine.
The German’s race unravelled spectacularly, a collision with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dropping him down the order, after the pre-race favourite had initially made a good start from pole and held the early lead.
Verstappen had a 10 seconds penalty applied post-race for causing the collision, dropping the Dutch youngster from fourth to fifth.
Vettel was also passed by the McLaren of Fernando Alonso two laps from the end.
Ricciardo’s mechanics had performed a minor miracle to change a blown engine after practice on Saturday, getting him out just in time during the first phase of qualifying.
“Putting ourselves 24 hours ago, I thought we might be starting at the back of the grid,” said the Australian. “Today is the real reward for that work.”
Sunday’s win was Ricciardo’s first since a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix last June and it also broke Mercedes’ Shanghai stranglehold, with the champions having won the last six races there.
Mercedes are yet to win this year, the first time since the turbo hybrid era started in 2014 that they have been beaten for three races in a row.
Ricciardo and Verstappen were not early contenders but the deployment of the safety car on the 32nd of 56 laps, after the Toro Rosso pair Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley collided and left debris on track, swung the race Red Bull’s way.
Bottas was in the lead at that stage ahead of Vettel, having overhauled the German during the pitstops, while Verstappen was fourth and Ricciardo sixth.
Red Bull pulled both their cars into the pits, ‘double-stacking’ them and bolting a set of fresh soft tyres on each.
The advantage of fresh tyres allowed Verstappen and Ricciardo to scythe through the field.
“The safety car was so unlucky for us,” exclaimed Bottas over the radio.
Verstappen botched his chances of victory, and a possible one-two for Red Bull, with scrappy attempts to overtake the main title contenders.
The Dutchman ran wide and dropped back behind Ricciardo when trying to pass Hamilton and later spun his Red Bull and Vettel’s Ferrari while attempting to pass the German for third -- an error he owned up to afterwards.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth for Renault, ahead of Alonso whose aggressive overtaking move on Vettel was ‘noted’ by stewards.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz was ninth for Renault with Kevin Magnussen rounding out the top 10 for Haas.
Hamilton takes a record but still in no-man’s land
Shanghai (Reuters): Four times world champion Lewis Hamilton set a Formula One record of 28 successive scoring finishes on Sunday but was in no mood for celebrating.
“I was in no man’s land today. I had no pace so I was just trying to hold on for whatever I had,” the Mercedes driver told reporters at the Chinese Grand Prix.
“I had the older tyre on and I was running out of it.”
The Briton finished fifth on track but moved up to fourth after a 10 second penalty was applied to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
That allowed him to cut Sebastian Vettel’s overall lead from 17 points to nine, with the Ferrari driver finishing only eighth.
“Obviously it’s a tough battle ahead of us. I would say on my side but also us as a team, we’ve been underperforming,” said Hamilton.
“Yesterday and today have been a disaster on my side so I have got to try and rectify that and get myself back into normal performance mode, otherwise more valuable points will be lost,” said Hamilton.
The Briton had also said in Bahrain last weekend, when he finished third after starting ninth, that he had felt he was driving around in no-man’s land.
But he arrived in Shanghai with an envious record, winner an unprecedented five times at a Chinese circuit that has long favoured Mercedes.
Hamilton was never a force to reckon with this time, however, qualifying only fourth and losing a place immediately at the start.
With Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo winning the race, champions Mercedes have now been beaten three races in a row for the first time in the V6 turbo hybrid era that started in 2014.
Hamilton could at least depend on his car’s impressive reliability, collecting points for the 28th race in a row and claiming outright a record he had previously held jointly with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
