Daniel Ricciardo has produced a storming drive, battling back from 17th position to win an incident-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the Mercedes of Valterri Bottas and Williams’ Canadian rookie Lance Stroll.
Sebastian Vettel finished fourth in his Ferrari, while pole-sitting Lewis Hamilton was fifth after both were handed penalties, which ultimately allowed Ricciardo to take the race lead and win.
Hamilton later claimed Vettel had “disgraced himself” when he steered into the back of the Briton’s Mercedes under safety car conditions after a red-flag stoppage on lap 22.
The win is Ricciardo’s fifth Grand Prix victory and first since he took out the Malaysian Grand Prix in October of 2016 but it was also the one he least expected to occur.
Ricciardo admitted on the podium it was a race he never saw himself winning once he had to pit on lap six after encountering a problem caused by debris from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari after the Finn had an opening lap incident with countryman Bottas.
“It was just a crazy race, we knew the podium was a chance after the restart and then we heard about the problems with Lewis and Seb,” Ricciardo said.
“I made an unplanned pit stop at the beginning, we had some debris in the brakes so we had to stop and clean them and dropped back to 17th place.
“Did I think I would win today? Absolutely not.”
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