Sublime Ricciardo charges to China win, Vettel eighth

SHANGHAI, China — Daniel Ricciardo emerged victorious at a mesmerising Chinese Grand Prix after the lead changed three times and drama unfolded among the top six drivers.

Strategy, controversy and some of the best wheel-to-wheel racing for years combined to create a 56-lap thriller in which Ricciardo jumped from sixth under a Safety Car on lap 35 to the lead in less than ten laps.

Key to Red Bull’s first victory of the year was a decision to fit fresh soft tyres on both Ricciardo and teammate Max Verstappen to allow them to attack Ferrari and Mercedes, which had traded the lead of the race up to that point. Verstappen was ahead of Ricciardo at the restart, but blew his opportunity with botched overtakes on Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo exhibited some of the best overtaking in recent years to pick off Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel and finally Valtteri Bottas, who was leading the race when the Safety Car came out. The well-deserved victory comes just at the right time for the Red Bull driver after disappointing results and power unit failures up to now.

Bottas held on for second in the Mercedes despite coming under attack from Raikkonen, who benefitted from the clash between Verstappen and his teammate Vettel. Verstappen finished fourth on the road but received a ten-second penalty for his collision with Vettel on 43, dropping him to fifth in the final standings.

That promoted Hamilton to fourth while Nico Hulkenberg took sixth after Renault adopted the same strategy as the Red Bulls. Vettel never recovered from the hit from Verstappen and lost seventh place to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso on the penultimate lap before nearly losing eighth to Carlos Sainz. Keven Magnussen took the final point in tenth.

More to follow…