There was quite the unexpected turn of events yesterday at the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix, I’m sure you’ll all agree. Waking up yesterday, who’d have thought that Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was going to walk away as the winner of the Chinese Grand Prix? I’m sure some of you had your fingers crossed for the Red Bull driver, though.
A Series Of Interesting Events
The race started off simply enough but it quickly became clear that this was going to be quite the exciting event. There were not one but two incredible double-stacked pit stops by the Red Bull team which allowed them to climb through the places and, ultimately, resulted in a P1 finish for Ricciardo.
However, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s performance may have also played a part in the eventual end result. Verstappen’s current driving style is often said to be quite aggressive and we saw a clear example of this as he attempted to overtake current F1 Leader, Sebastian Vettel during a hairpin. It seems that Verstappen miscalculated the corner, missed the overtaking window and ended up swiping Vettel, resulting in a half-spin by both drivers. The Red Bull driver ended up in a slightly better position than Vettel and managed to rejoin the race much faster while Ferrari’s Vettel had to struggle to get back onto the track and ended up losing a few places and, unfortunately, in the end, Vettel ended up finishing only in 8th. Verstappen was fourth to cross the line but a 10 seconds penalty from his mistimed overtake put him firmly in 5th.
A Well Deserved Win For Red Bull’s Ricciardo
Regardless of the drama and excitement of the race, Daniel Ricciardo performed incredibly at Shanghai and definitely deserved the win. The Australian, quite possibly one of the best overtakers in F1 today, showed his skill again and again, moving through the ranks with apparent ease with Red Bull’s incredible double-double-stacked pit stop strategy giving him two sets of fresh tyres throughout the race.
Whether Red Bull would have been able to pull off a second double-stack pit stop without the safety car, we’ll never quite know, but what we do know is that Ricciardo drove incredibly and celebrated with a well-deserved shoey, much to the dismay of his fellow drivers.
I don’t think Kimi is even slightly tempted // Lars Baron/Getty Images
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