Daniel Ricciardo produced a number of his trademark banzai overtakes to claim an incredible victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, as a number of big names struggled.
The Australian was running a quiet race in fifth at the halfway mark, but that all changed when Red Bull decided to pit him and teammate Max Verstappen under a Safety Car which was called for debris on the track at the hairpin.
As the only top six runners to make that call to switch onto new Soft rubber, Ricciardo and the Dutchman had a significant pace advantage over the Mercedes’ and Ferrari’s ahead and it would be the 28-year-old who made the most, making his way up from P6 to lead the race in a crazy 12 or so laps as Verstappen made mistakes.
The Grand Prix began with Sebastian Vettel maintaining the lead from Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen into Turn 1, however, the bold defence the German used allowed Valtteri Bottas to sweep into second around the outside of his fellow Finn.
Starting on the Ultrasoft tyres compared to those ahead on Softs, Verstappen made up places first on Lewis Hamilton and then Raikkonen as well at Turn 6 to run third.
A lull ensued with the Red Bull drivers trying to make their softer Pirellis last and they did with both pitting for new Mediums to match the strategy of those around them.
Ferrari would wait too long to react though, allowing Bottas to use the undercut to pass Vettel while the German exited the pits to take the lead.
In response, the Italian team would keep Raikkonen out on his old tyres to try and back the Mercedes up and it succeeded in putting Vettel in DRS range but still too far back to attack.
Then came the defining moment as, down the field, both Toro Rosso’s collided at the Turn 14 hairpin, with Pierre Gasly hitting Brendon Hartley, race control waited a little before radio messages called for the track to cleared and resulted in the Safety Car being deployed.
The timing was perfect for Red Bull to pull both cars in for new tyres as the leaders couldn’t react with Hamilton then complaining about Mercedes failing to do the same as he was further back.
From then on, it was all about the charge up the field with Ricciardo making Raikkonen his first victim in a non-DRS pass on the Ferrari into the hairpin.
Ahead, Verstappen looked to pull off an audacious move on Hamilton around the outside at Turn 7 but he would slide off track, crucially allowing his teammate by.
The Australian would then show his young partner how to do it with a lunge on the Mercedes from a long way back into the hairpin coming off to perfection.
Eventually, Max would also pass the world champion into Turn 6 but now, all eyes were on Ricciardo.
His easiest pass came on Vettel as he got better traction off Turn 13 and eased ahead with DRS before the hairpin, then Bottas half-heartedly closed the door on the run to Turn 6 but there as no stopping the ‘Honey Badger’ as he eased up the inside to take the lead.
With one Red Bull clear out front, attention switched to Verstappen again but it would all go wrong again as he misjudged Vettel’s braking into the hairpin and hit the side of the Ferrari sending both into a spin.
The stewards would later give him a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.
The championship leader who came off worse as Nico Hulkenberg flashed ahead into Turn 1 and then Fernando Alonso added insult to injury by pushing Vettel off track at Turn 2 to move ahead, demoting him to eighth place.
At the checkered flag, Ricciardo had pulled out an eight-second lead by the end to take his first win of 2018 and sixth in his career, Bottas held off a late charge from Raikkonen as the two Finn’s completed the podium.
Hamilton benefitted from Verstappen’s penalty to take fourth in a very subdued weekend for the Briton. The Dutchman was fifth ahead of Hulkenberg, Alonso and Vettel.
Carlos Sainz couldn’t quite add to the Scuderia driver’s pain in ninth as Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 for Haas.
Full results can be seen below:
