THE fickle finger of fate played its part at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai last Sunday.
Daniel Ricciardo, who has had his share of bad luck lately, was given a great opportunity to win a race he barely qualified for, which he took with both hands.
Ricciardo had earlier blown a motor in practice which the mechanics only got into Q1 by the skin of their teeth.
He started the race sixth on the grid with a very hastily rebuilt car.
Sebastian Vettel led the race from pole position, the moment the start lights went out building up a good lead, until the first set of pit stops.
Valtteri Bottas ‘undercut’ Vettel and was ahead when Vettel came out of his subsequent stop.
Then, later in the race there was an incident when the two Toro Rossos came together in a corner leaving serious debris on the track.
A pace car had to come out to allow a clean up and Red Bull reacted remarkably quickly in getting their two cars in before the pace car took up position.
It was almost a knee jerk reaction and they were both back out ready to hound the pack on fresh rubber.
Ricciardo and Max Verstappen proceeded relentlessly through the field until Verstappen came up to Vettel.
He took a gap, under braking, which just wasn’t big enough and the cars spun off in unison; Verstappen was later hit with a 20-second penalty.
Ricciardo, meanwhile, pushed on to take the lead from Bottas and went on to win the race with Valtteri second Kimi Raikkonen, also with a retyred car, in third.
Just off the podium were Lewis Hamilton, who had had a difficult race, and battle-scarred Verstappen in fifth after all the argy-bargy.
The rest of the field was led home by Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault in sixth position and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren Renault seventh.
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Behind him Vettel was yet again very good at nursing worn tyres but under the circumstances could only make it home eighth.
Carlos Sainz was ninth in the second works Renault and the first Haas Ferrari home was Kevin Magnussen in tenth.
Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on April 29.
Standings: 1 Sebastian Vettel 54; 2 Lewis Hamilton 45; 3 Valtteri Bottas 40; 4 Daniel Ricciardo 37; 5 Kimi Raikkonen 30.
Team: 1 Mercedes 85; 2 Ferrari 84.
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