Ricciardo Claims Maiden Grand Prix Victory as Mercedes Hits Trouble
Luke Smith, 8 Jun, 2014
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Daniel Ricciardo has claimed his first ever win in Formula 1 at a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix that saw him pass an ailing Nico Rosberg in the dying stages of the grand prix.
Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton forged into a huge lead at the start of the race, and looked set to duel for the race win once again in Montreal, only for a brake problem to hit both drivers. Hamilton was forced to retire from the race, but Rosberg managed the issue. However, he just could not hold off a charging Ricciardo in the final stages of the grand prix. His Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel completed the podium.
From the line, Hamilton made a fantastic start to get up alongside Rosberg heading into the first corner. However, he was forced wide after the German driver locked up, dropping him down to third place behind Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso fell back one place from the line behind Jean-Eric Vergne, but the race was quickly interrupted following an incident between the two Marussia drivers. Max Chilton lost the backend of his car heading through the first chicane and hit teammate Jules Bianchi, sending the Frenchman into the wall. Both drivers had to retire from the race, and the safety car was deployed to allow for the wreckage to be cleared by the marshals.
On lap 8, the safety car peeled in and the race resumed, with Rosberg making a good restart to lead from Vettel and Hamilton. The Briton soon made light work of the Red Bull driver thanks to the superior straight line speed of his Mercedes, and he duly set his sights on catching Rosberg in front.
Daniel Ricciardo had held position in sixth off the line, but was working well to keep Felipe Massa ahead in sight. Red Bull opted to bring him in early, and Williams followed suit with its drivers. However, a slow stop for Massa meant that he dropped down the order and behind Jean-Eric Vergne. Vergne himself lost a place to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who went one lap longer before making his first stop. Vettel also dived into the pits from third place to get the option tire out of the way and move onto the prime.
Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes drivers to pit on lap 18, handing the lead to Hamilton. The German driver emerged from the pits in second place, but was lucky not to crash when he had a moment at turn four. However, the gap was big enough to allow Rosberg to retain the lead after both Mercedes drivers had stopped.
After he had pitted, though, Hamilton soon got the hammer down. The Briton carved into Rosberg’s lead, and was soon within DRS range. Heading into the final chicane, Rosberg locked up and had to cut the chicane, but managed to hold onto the lead and sneakily set the fastest lap in the process. This prompted the stewards to investigate the move for exceeding track limits, only for them to warn the German driver and tell him not to do it again.
In the race to complete the podium, Vettel found himself behind the Force India drivers of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg as they were yet to stop. On the prime tire, they were able to keep the defending world champion at bay, thus allowing Valtteri Bottas to close up in the Williams. When Perez pitted, Hulkenberg moved up into third place behind the Mercedes, albeit some 26 seconds down on Hamilton.
Bottas was the first of the front runners to make his second stop, and dropped down to 12th place as a result. He looked to get the undercut on Vettel, who was still being harmed by Hulkenberg ahead. The German shadowed his podium rival by pitting one lap later, and gave himself a chance to push on out of traffic.
At the front, concern began to set in at Mercedes when both Rosberg and Hamilton began to slow through all three sectors. The Briton closed up to his German teammate once again, but both were losing some 20km/h through the speed trap. The team informed its drivers that they both had the same issue, and it could not be resolved.
Rosberg dived into the pits a few laps later for a set of prime tires, but a slow stop allowed Hamilton to move ahead of his teammate once he stopped. However, he made a mistake at the hairpin to allow Rosberg back past, only to then try another move at the final corner and cut the chicane just as Nico did earlier in the race. This later turned out to be a brake problem, forcing Hamilton to park his car up and retire from the race with 22 laps to go.
This allowed Rosberg to move back into the lead once Felipe Massa pitted from the front, but he too had a brake problem. The chasing pack of Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel all had the smell of blood, and could sense that a race win could be on the cards.
Mercedes’ pit wall continued to cross its fingers that Rosberg could hold on and claim the team’s seventh win of the season. The German driver continued to find time in the first two sectors, but he was being caught up by severeal tenths of a second in the final sector thanks to the long straight.
Felipe Massa continued to push for position, managing to find his way past both his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg after they tussled for position at the hairpin. The Brazilian sat in fifth place, and was beginning to put the hammer down in an attempt to catch the leaders ahead.
Rosberg continued to pull away in the first sector, which meant he had enough of an advantage to stay in the lead through the final sector. With just five laps to go, Ricciardo finally managed to find a way past Perez, and set his sights on Rosberg at the front.
The Red Bull driver closed on Rosberg in the final couple of laps, and with three laps to go he found his way past with DRS to take the lead of the race.
On the final lap, Sergio Perez had a massive crash with Massa at the first corner, bringing out the safety car.
This meant that the cars crossed the line in the order they were running, giving Ricciardo a well deserved maiden win in Formula 1.