A playful Daniel Ricciardo claimed his unexpected victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was “never in doubt” after a rollercoaster race in Baku.
The owner of car No. 3 would start 10th, after hitting the wall in qualifying and his chances of points, let alone a podium or win, were even further dented after the Red Bull driver was forced to pit early to clear a blocked brake duct and he resumed in 17th.
But, after climbing back up to 10th after the first Safety Car period and starting fifth following the red flag, Ricciardo would produce ultimately the race-winning overtake on both Williams at Turn 1 at the restart to claim third before inheriting and holding the lead after issues for long-time leaders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
“It was just a crazy race — Never in doubt, never in doubt,” he joked afterwards. “It was fun. Even when we got the red flag, I came on the radio and just was like ‘man this is fun, this is a good race’. I was P5 and was having fun back in P5 — now I won the race so you imagine where I am right now, pretty unreal.”
The Australian did admit he had a good idea the Ferrari of Vettel would be in trouble with the stewards for hitting the Mercedes in temper but didn’t know if he would be able to capitalise.
“I saw, when we had the red flag when I got out of the car, I saw the replays. I was pretty sure Seb was going to get a penalty but I wasn’t sure to what extent,” Ricciardo claimed.
“I was thinking if it’s only a 10-second penalty then they’ve probably got the pace to make that gap but then they said 10-second stop and go, I was like alright.
“Then they said Lewis’ headrest was loose, he’s pitting, I was like this is unreal, I am now leading this race and it’s is in my hands,” he added.
Even after he crossed the finish line to claim his fifth victory in F1, Ricciardo admitted it was difficult to come to terms with just how the 51 laps had played out.
“This is the race we expected last year with all the Safety Cars and all the chaos and we got it this year,” he said. “I was honestly speechless after the race, on the cool down lap I was just giggling like a little schoolboy.
“I said yesterday we had to stay out of trouble and it certainly paid off today. Big thanks to Red Bull, nice to get one car home and on the top step.”