Australian Daniel Ricciardo celebrated his first Formula One victory on Sunday after winning the Canadian Grand Prix to put Red Bull on top of the podium and deal Mercedes their first defeat of the season.
An afternoon of high drama at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal ended behind the safety car after Brazilian Felipe Massa’s Williams smashed into the back of Sergio Perez’s Force India as they entered the final lap.
Ahead of them, Ricciardo cruised to the checkered flag, with championship leader Nico Rosberg of Germany grabbing second for Mercedes after starting on pole position in what turned out to be a thriller in Quebec.
Photo: Reuters
Last year’s winner and quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel was third for Red Bull.
“I’m still a bit in shock,” Ricciardo beamed from the podium, where he was interviewed by 1995 Canadian GP winner Jean Alesi. “It’s an amazing feeling right now.”
Though he came second, Rosberg still stretched his overall lead to 22 points after teammate and closest rival Lewis Hamilton retired with a rear brake problem.
Photo: AFP
“It’s been a decent weekend and the points are important, so I’m definitely pleased with that,” said Rosberg, who won two weeks ago in Monaco.
He and Hamilton fought wheel-to-wheel, with their cars touching at the hairpin on lap 46, before the 2008 world champion suffered his second blank in seven races.
“This has been a good track for me, so to come here and not finish is sad for the team, but we’ve got many more races ahead of us, so let’s hope that there’s more fortune coming in the future,” Britain’s Hamilton said.
The Mercedes pair had built up a comfortable lead on Sunday, but reported power problems halfway through the race, with Rosberg holding out until he was passed by Ricciardo with two laps to go.
“The boy has been brilliant all year,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner said of the Aussie driver. “It was an incredible drive. It’s been a great team effort. We beat them [Mercedes] at the most unlikely track. We are closing the gap.”
Until Sunday, Mercedes had won every race and finished one-two in the past five.
Red Bull, who won the last nine races of the previous year with Vettel, have been racing to catch up after engine partner Renault started the year on the back foot.
“It’s the first time we have beaten Mercedes this year and we managed to get a victory,” Horner said. “We’re realists, we know we have a massive challenge ahead of us, but there is still a long way to go in this championship. We’re not even at the half-way point.”
McLaren’s Jenson Button — winner in Canada in 2011 — benefited from the last-lap chaos to take fourth, followed by German Nico Hulkenberg in a Force India and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso of Spain.
Mexican Perez and Massa, who a few laps earlier had looked capable of getting on the podium, were both reported unscathed after their heavy impact with the barriers.
Starting alongside each other on the front row, Rosberg and Hamilton — a three time winner in Canada — had looked poised to stage another one of their private duels, until the Briton tried to force his way past at the start, but was squeezed out and lost a place to Vettel.
Yet Rosberg was unable to capitalize on Hamilton’s setback, with the safety car immediately deployed after the two Marussias collided behind them and left debris scattered across the track.
The German, who was warned by stewards after he cut the chicane while defending against Hamilton, said it had been a tough afternoon.
“I had to readjust all my braking points because [I was] arriving with so much less speed and pushing all these buttons to try and get the thing going again,” he said.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas finished seventh for Williams, with Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne eighth for Toro Rosso and Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen ninth for McLaren. Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen took the final point for Ferrari to seal a disastrous trip to Canada for Marussia, who had celebrated scoring their first-ever championship points in Monaco.
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