Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden grand prix win this morning with a thrilling victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Australian overtook Nico Rosberg’s failing Mercedes AMG with just two laps to run before taking the chequered flag behind the Safety Car.
While dicing for P4 in the closing stages Felipe Massa (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Force India) came together and crashed out in spectacular style, flying into the crash barriers either side of a fortunate Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). The incident brought out the Safety Car and secured Ricciardo’s win.
Vettel escaped that late drama to finish the race in third. Jenson Button (McLaren) put in a late charge to claim fourth after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) on the last flying lap.
Earlier, it was looking like the usual Mercedes procession we’ve come to expect in 2014. It wasn’t always perfect, Vettel got past Hamilton to briefly hold P2, but could not defend that position when DRS became available. Rosberg and Hamilton soon resumed their position at the head of the pack and cleared off into the distance.
The lead changed in Hamilton’s favour thanks to some scrappy work during Rosberg’s second pit-stop, only to see Rosberg regain P1 shortly after when Hamilton ran wide at the hairpin allowing his teammate to get by.
The Mercedes 1–2 result was scuppered, with 24 laps remaining, when Hamilton’s rear brakes faded badly forcing him into the pits to retire. Rosberg was plagued by the same problem but drove a masterful race thereafter under instructions to simply get to the flag. The chasing group, headed by Perez, closed in quickly on Rosberg but the German was able to do enough to maintain a lead of around one second.
Ricciardo made a race-defining move with six laps to run when he was able to force his way past Perez. His timing couldn’t have been better, as he soon overtook a backmarker in Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) and set about chasing Rosberg. Gutierrez did his best to get out of the way of the group behind but stalled them enough to give Ricciardo some respite.
Rosberg still appeared to have enough to in the kitty to hold Ricciardo at bay, but on Lap 68 of 70 the Australian was able to get by the failing Mercedes with DRS on the back straight. The Perez-Vettel-Massa grouping had dropped back a little to give Rosberg some relief.
However, Vettel bullocked his way by Perez to take P3 and might have had reason to believe he could also chase Rosberg down. Any such thoughts were brought to an abrupt end when Massa clipped the left rear of Perez’s car, shooting both cars off track and out of the race. Fortunately both men appeared to escape injury and a necessary Safety Car brought an end to some chaotic and breathtaking racing.
After taking the chequered flag Daniel seemed to be in a state of disbelief and shock, such was the drama and speed with which the fortunes of his race changed. Once he stood on the podium’s top step for the first time, though, his trademark beaming smile was there for all to see.
Ricciardo was a popular winner and hearing Advance Australia Fair brought an equally broad smile to thousands of race fans down under who were rewarded for braving the 4am (AEST) race start.
Daniel becomes the fourth Australian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, joining Sir Jack Brabham (14), Alan Jones (12) and Mark Webber (9). He also moves to third in the drivers’ championship, behind Rosberg and Hamilton.
