Ricciardo stunned by last-gasp breakthrough victory

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo said he was “still a bit in shock” after claiming the first victory of his Formula One career in Canada.

The Red Bull driver passed Nico Rosberg to take the lead of the race with just two laps to go, after the Mercedes driver ran into technical trouble.

He had spent much of the second part of the race stuck behind Sergio Perez, before finally passing the Force India driver at turn one.

“The race really came to life the last, I don’t know, 15, 20 laps,” said Ricciardo after the race. “We saw Hamilton had a problem and then we saw Rosberg was slow on the straights.”

“I was really struggling to get past Perez. They had a pretty good car down the straight and he was holding me off well in the corners. We finally got a run out of the last chicane and made a nice move into turn one and then set my sights on Nico.”

“And a couple of laps to go I just found myself in the right spot to get the DRS.”

Ricciardo has waited 57 races to get his first win in Formula One. “It’s just an an amazing feeling right now,” he said, “I’m really grateful for this.”

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Ricciardo stunned by last-gasp breakthrough victory”

  1. Purely on his season performance as a whole, he deserves it.

    1. Aye, good to see RIC get one.

    2. Agreed. Now for Renault & Ferrari to sort themselves out, so Alonso, Vettel, Ricciardo & Raikkonen can be on terms with the Mercs.

  2. Kudos to him! and good spirit from Vettel!

  3. I wonder how many people would have put money on Renault winning a race before Ferrari before Australia ^^

  4. Red Bull seemed closer before the issues at Mercedes arose and prior to being held up by the Force India’s, so in a few races – perhaps after the summer break – it might be game on.

    Might.

    1. I’d love for you to be right, but I very much doubt that anyone will get close to the Mercs this season.

      Rosberg just finished second with no ERS – 160 hp down.

      That tells us all we need to know about the extent of the Silver Arrows’ advantage (which is to take nothing away from a stellar derive from Nico).

      1. No MGU-K*

        He only maintained the gap to Perez in S1 and S2, due to the corners, while Ricciardo matched him in those.

    2. Sure, we might see them closing in @vettel1. But seeing how Mercedes was more or less able to run with the pack after losing the hybrid part of the system and very much on the limit brakes, I think this just shows exactly how big a car/engine advantage they have when everything is working.

      And let’s not forget that for RBR, especially for Vettel, there are almost sure to be some penalties for using more components than allowed.

  5. Congratulations to Ricciardo on his first win. It just shows as a driver and a team you must keep on pushing, you never know what can happen. I love his smile and his attitude. That and his driving ability have me won over as one of my favorite drivers. His move on Perez and subsequently making it stick was the pass of the day for me.

    Also thought Vettel showed a lot of class and honest good cheer for Ricciardo in his win. Good to see that.

    1. Seb’s is probably not pleased with the team and I think there was a radio message about it – but I genuinely believe he’s happy for Dan – they seem to get along quite well.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        9th June 2014, 0:27

        He wasn’t happy with the strategy (which probably made him lose out on the win) but he still congratulated Ricciardo with a smile.

        Who would have expected the Red Bull teammates to demonstrate a friendly relationship?

  6. He’s building quite the career, from humble beginnings at HRT to a learning and sharpening stage at STR he know shows us at RBR what a talent and great driver he is.

    We’ve got a big star in the making, he fully deserved this. We don’t need to take a guess on who is going to win the F1F driver of the weekend award!

    Note: This makes him the second Red Bull Junior to go on and win a Grand Prix, next to Vettel of course ;-)

    1. I’ll vote Rosberg for DOTW – pole lap and holding the car together in the race to maximise the result was impressive. He had help from Perez and Dan drove brilliantly but it was no small feature.

      1. Yeap..me too..Nico followed closely by Danny Ric!

    2. Not to take anything away from Ricciardo, but the only reason he beat Vettel is because he was gifted 6.3 seconds by the Force India’s and than jumped Vettel in the pitstops. Ricciardo was fast, but Vettel was faster, just got screwed by circumstances.

  7. Daniel Riccardo’s tactics were a great patient and calculated non panic driving (not like Massa did on Perez) he took his chances when they arose. We in Australia are very proud of Dan and we wish him all the best for the future which I’m sure he will well at. But I must commend Seb on his great camaraderie towards Dan and I must say that they set a great example of how F1 teams and team mates should conduct themselves. Great to see.

  8. If anyone deserves a win this season, its Daniel.

  9. Paul (@frankjaeger)
    9th June 2014, 1:16

    Well done to Daniel. A fine racer who is consistently surprising me this season. I can see a future champion forming

  10. Mark in Florida
    9th June 2014, 1:26

    Congratulations to Daniel he always makes the most of his chances. This race in a way it shows the other teams just how far off they are. Mercedes lost their energy recovery system and still came in second! Shame about Perez and Massa thought Checo was going to get a podium. A very exciting race over all. Also Alonsos comments were telling, he has a realistic outlook to say the least.

    1. I believe the Mercs could lap faster than the Ferraris even without the MGU-K.

      Ferrari should go bury their heads in the sand, its shameful that the only other team to enjoy an engine-chassis advantage is so incredibly poor.

  11. Well deserved victory. He has been the most consistent best of the rest runner all season so far, and now is the one to take it home when Mercedes falters.

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