top of page

Ricciardo wins in China thriller

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb


Daniel Ricciardo has won the Chinese Grand Prix after managing to get past Valtteri Bottas, who finished in second place. Fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium in 3rd place, whilst Lewis Hamilton finished fourth (or be it fifth on the road), whilst World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel finished in eighth place.

At the start, polesitter Vettel got away well and led into the first corner, but team-mate Raikkonen got passed first by Bottas for second, and then Verstappen for third who made a fantastic start from fifth place. At this point, the order was: Vettel, Bottas, Verstappen, Raikkonen and Hamilton.

On lap 18, Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to pit, with team-mate Ricciardo following suit seconds later in what was a double-stop by the Red Bulls, which was executed brilliantly it's worth saying. A lap later, Mercedes driver Hamilton followed suit and made his pitstop. On the following lap, team-mate Bottas pitted in an attempt to undercut Vettel, and it worked - as the German, who pitted on the next lap, re-emerged from his stop behind Bottas.

At this point, Raikkonen, who had yet to stop, was leading the race, and Ferrari opted to keep him out longer with the intention to try and hold up Bottas and potentially give an opportunity for Vettel to get back past the Mercedes driver. It didn't work out as planned, however, as Raikkonen was passed relatively easily by Bottas in a nice move.

On lap 29, Charles Leclerc of Sauber suffered a spin at turn 1, but was able to get the car going again. On lap 31, arguably the key moment of the race occurred, as Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly collided in what was an extremely daft move by Gasly for which he was given a 10-second time penalty. A lap later, due to debris from the incident, a Safety Car (SC) was deployed. The Red Bull drivers both decided to pit during the SC period in another well-executed double stop. At this point, the order was: Bottas, Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen, Raikkonen and Ricciardo - with the Red Bulls both on fresh soft tyres. Hamilton was rather annoyed with the team that they didn't call him in for a stop, and said he had "super cold" tyres.

The SC came in at the end of lap 35, and Bottas made a good restart and opened up a healthy lead to Vettel. On lap 38, Ricciardo managed to get past Raikkonen for fifth in a beautiful overtaking manoeuvre. On lap 39, Ricciardo's team-mate, Verstappen tried an overtake on Hamilton round the outside of turn 4, but ran wide and thus lost a place to Ricciardo. On lap 41, Ricciardo got past Hamilton in another spectacular move down at turn 6, and Verstappen did successfully manage to pass Hamilton a lap later for fourth. On the next lap, Ricciardo managed to get past Vettel for second in a rather straightforward move. Verstappen tried the same on lap 44 (to get past Vettel), however, made a clumsy and sloppy move which resulted in contact as well as a 10-second time penalty for the Dutchman. At this point, the order was: Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen (who overtook Hamilton as the Brit had to go off track to avoid the Red Bull and Ferrari who hit), Hamilton, Verstappen, Hulkenberg and Vettel (who lost out from the collision).

On lap 46, Ricciardo made an outstanding move on Bottas to take the lead on the race, which is where he remained till the chequered flag. Raikkonen did close up to Bottas in second, but could not get past and thus finished in third place. Verstappen had got past Hamilton, and also closed up to the 2 Finns, but in the end dropped to fifth as a result of the penalty - he did not get past either Finn and so finished fourth on the road, with Hamilton inheriting the place. Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth, whilst Fernando Alonso got past Vettel for seventh place with the German presumably carrying damage from the Verstappen incident. Carlos Sainz of Renault and Kevin Magnussen of Haas completed the points-scoring places in 9th and 10th respectively. Hartley retired with a reported gearbox issue, but was classified in last place having completed over 90% of the race distance.

Classification:

Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes

Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer

Nico Hulkenberg - Renault

Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault

Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari

Carlos Sainz - Renault

Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari

Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes

Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes

Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault

Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes

Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes

Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari

Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari

Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda

Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari

Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda

World Championship classification: Sebastian Vettel - 54 points

Lewis Hamilton - 45 points

Valtteri Bottas - 40 points

Daniel Ricciardo - 37 points

Kimi Raikkonen - 30 points

Fernando Alonso - 22 points

Nico Hulkenberg - 22 points

Max Verstappen - 18 points

Pierre Gasly - 12 points

Kevin Magnussen - 11 points

Stoffel Vandoorne - 6 points

Carlos Sainz - 3 points

Marcus Ericsson - 2 points

Esteban Ocon - 1 point

Sergio Perez - 0 points

Charles Leclerc - 0 points

Romain Grosjean - 0 points

Lance Stroll - 0 points

Sergey Sirotkin - 0 points

Brendon Hartley - 0 points

Constructors' Championship classification:

Mercedes - 85 points

Ferrari - 84 points

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 55 points

McLaren-Renault - 28 points

Renault - 25 points

Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 12 points

Haas-Ferrari - 11 points

Sauber-Ferrari - 2 points

Force India-Mercedes - 1 point

Williams-Mercedes - 0 points


4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page