Daniel Riccardo “Red bull” won the Grand Prix of China.
Ricciardo took advantage of a tactical trick in his team Red bull will win in Shanghai, after the championship leader Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen sharply collided during a Grand spectacular Chinese.
Valtteri Bottas appeared on the field to claim his victory after a strategy error by Ferrari allowed the Mercedes ahead of Vettel during the round of pit stops.
But in the second race took a dramatic turn when the safety car was deployed after the coming together between a pair of Toro Rosso Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly on lap 31.
Unlike its rivals, ricciardo and Verstappen dived into the pits to take on fresh rubber, and the risk worked for ricciardo, as he passed Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas finally, on a quite remarkable victory.
But hot-headed Verstappen, who was ahead of ricciardo, blew his chance for victory when he drove off the road trying to get past Hamilton and then collided with Vettel.
Collision at turn 14 saw Vettel crossed the line down in eighth, allowing Hamilton, who finished fifth – which later became fourth after a 10-second penalty for Verstappen – to move to nine points from the furious German.
“I don’t need to say anything here,” said Vettel after his coming together with Verstappen at turn 14.
Really aggressive Dutchman went too deep on the brakes, making the collision inevitable. The stewards agreed, slapping the Red Bull man with a time penalty.
Vettel looked likely to finish seventh, but was overtaken by the McLaren’s Fernando Alonso on the penultimate lap to the finish line even further in order.
Bottas held the late surge from Ferrari, Raikkonen has finished second, albeit nine seconds down on the jubilant ricciardo.
In the third game of the championship looked to be moving the direction of Vettel after he saw from the rest of the pack to keep the lead at the opening bend for free.
For the second week in a row, moved Bottas ahead of Raikkonen, while Verstappen made his way past Hamilton and then Raikkonen to take third.
Hamilton apologized to his team for the loss. Was Verstappen and two Mercedes the first of the leaders to pit, but Ferrari left Vettel on old tires two laps too long, but Bottas was ahead of Ferrari to take the lead.
Ferrari, confused, losing the lead, not pull, but rather left him on the track in the hope that he could help Vettel back past Bottas. It didn’t work.
Bottas did everything right, but the safety car cost him dearly. Riccardo, however, was not wrong when handed an opportunity with an excellent demonstration in overtaking.
“I don’t seem to win a boring race,” said ricciardo after claiming his first victory with the Grand Prix in June last year in Azerbaijan. “That was unexpected.
“He was restless. I heard the safety car call on the turn of the 14th and they said we are not going to stop. It happened very quickly, but it was a decisive, winning move.
“Sometimes you just need to lick a stamp and send it. I enjoyed it very much”.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
