@DanielRicciardo storms to epic #ChineseGP victory #F1 @RedBullRacing

Daniel Ricciardo has charged to a sensational victory at an action-packed Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.

 

 

Ricciardo flew from sixth to first within ten laps after Red Bull became the ultimate opportunist, pitting for a fresh set of the yellow-branded soft tyres behind the deployment of the Safety Car.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel fell to eighth after colliding with Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was hit with a 10 second time penalty by the stewards, elevating Lewis Hamilton to fourth place and puts the Briton nine points behind Vettel in the Driver’s Championship.

 

Ricciardo crossed the line to take his first victory of the season, flying by Bottas with a spectacular dive into turn six and 10 laps to spare.

 

How the Chinese Grand Prix unfolded

 

Pole sitter Vettel took a comfortable getaway off the line and covered Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen to lead from the get-go in the first stint and built a lead of over three seconds over Bottas.

 

Red Bull were the first of the front runners to spark a chain reaction of pit stops, pitting and double stacking their drivers Verstappen and Ricciardo before Mercedes reacted and pitted Bottas on lap 19.

 

Ferrari followed suit on lap 20 pitting Vettel from the lead, but a solid middle sector from Bottas helped the Finn sweep past the German into the first corner as Vettel exited pit lane.

 

Bottas stabilised that gap over the next 12 laps until Vettel had a small chance to attack when they caught Raikkonen, who remained out on track longer.

 

Raikkonen held fellow Finnish compatriot Bottas behind into the turn 14 hairpin at the end of the lap but could not stop Bottas’ aggressive charge around the outside of the first corner immediately afterwards.

 

Vettel followed suit and put Bottas under intense pressure into turn six but was brushed off as Bottas moved out of DRS range when the Toro Rosso duo collided at the hairpin.

 

Pierre Gasly misjudged his move on team-mate Brendon Hartley with both colliding and spinning both round, sending debris over the track, which required the deployment of the safety car to clear it away.

 

Verstappen and Ricciardo, who were running third and fifth respectively with Hamilton sandwiched in-between after a strong opening run on the ultra-softs with its rivals on softs, took advantage of the safety car and dived straight into the pits to swap mediums for a fresh set of softs.

 

Ricciardo breezed passed Raikkonen, who only put on mediums before the safety car and stayed on track, before catching the battling Hamilton and Verstappen.

 

Ricciardo overtook team-mate Verstappen when the Dutchman ran off track trying to pass Hamilton on the outside of sweeping turn seven, then made a sublime divebomb on the Briton into the hairpin.

 

Ricciardo was then only 2.8 seconds off the lead, be he rapidly got within DRS range and flew passed Vettel for second on the back straight.

 

Bottas locked up immediately into the hairpin shortly after Ricciardo moved into second place, and with 12 laps to go they were locked at heads into a battle for the lead.

 

Ricciardo acted quickly into turn four, getting on the inside of Bottas even though the Finn defended hard, and forced a sensational overtake into turn six taking the lead with 10 laps remaining.

 

The Australian held on from there take his sixth career victory and 8.894 seconds clear of Bottas who settled for second place as the Finn just held off Raikkonen who was given a free ride into third after Verstappen collided with Vettel.

 

Verstappen caught Vettel on lap 43 and pulled off a risky lunge into the turn 14 hairpin as Vettel ran deep.

 

But both collided when Vettel turned in and both synchronisingly spinning and delaying Hamilton.

 

They continued, but Verstappen was hit with a 10 second time penalty, and even though the Dutchman recovered on track to finish fourth he was relegated to fifth behind Hamilton in the results classification.

There was no sympathy for Vettel who fell to eighth at the finish line after struggling from his collision with Verstappen and was passed by both Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

 

Behind Vettel who was annoyed after Alonso’s aggressive move into turns one and two, the other Renault of Carlos Sainz and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten and the final two points places respectively.

 

The Force India pairing of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez came home in 11^th and 12^th respectively and ahead of the other Renault-powered McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne who was 13^th.

 

The two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin followed in 14^th and 15^th respectively and in-front of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who took 16^th and the other Haas of Romain Grosjean who finished 17^th.

 

It was a difficult day for both Honda-powered Toro Rosso’s following their tangle at the turn 14 hairpin with the aforementioned Gasly who was the hero in Bahrain finishing a lowly 18^th and team-mate Brendon Hartley being the only retirement of the race after their collision.

 

The other Sauber of Charles Leclerc finished in 19^th.

 

 

Formula 1 2018 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix Race Results Classification (56 Laps)

Pos	Driver	Car	Laps	Gap
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	56	1h35m36.380s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	56	8.894s
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	56	9.637s
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	56	16.985s
5	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	56	20.436s
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	56	21.052s
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	56	30.639s
8	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	56	35.286s
9	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	56	35.763s
10	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	56	39.594s
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1 Team	56	44.050s
12	Sergio Perez	Force India F1 Team	56	44.725s
13	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	56	49.373s
14	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	56	55.490s
15	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	56	58.241s
16	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	56	1m02.604s
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	56	1m05.296s
18	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	56	1m06.330s
19	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	56	1m22.575s
20	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	51	Not running

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 54 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 45 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 40 Points.
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 37 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 30 Points.
6. Fernando Alonso – 22 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 22 Points.
8. Max Verstappen – 18 Points.
9. Pierre Gasly – 12 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 11 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 85 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 84 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 55 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 28 Points.
5. Renault Sport F1 Team – 25 Points.
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda – 12 Points.
7. Haas F1 Team – 11 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 2 Points.
9. Force India F1 Team – 1 Point.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 0 Points.

 

Round four of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the streets of Baku in Azerbaijan for the Formula 1 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix from April 27-29.