Red Bull’s tactics give Ricciardo victory in Chinese GP

SHANGHAI: Daniel Ricciardo made a string of thrilling overtaking moves to snatch a surprise Chinese Grand Prix victory yesterday after a safety car strategy gamble by his Red Bull team paid off handsomely.

The Australian, who started sixth after almost missing qualifying, made the most of fresher tyres to finish 8.8sec ahead of Valtteri Bottas, driving a Mercedes.

‘‘I don’t seem to win boring races,’’ Ricciardo grinned from the podium, before chugging victory champagne from his racing boot in a trademark ‘‘shoey’’.

Kimi Raikkonen took third place for Ferrari, but title contenders Lewis Hamilton and prerace favourite Sebastian Vettel both endured trying afternoons, the four times world champions ending up fourth and eighth respectively.

‘‘I was in noman’s land today,’’ Hamilton said. ‘‘I had no pace.’’

Vettel, who won the first two 2018 races for Ferrari, saw his series lead over Hamilton slashed from 17 points to nine.

The German’s race unravelled spectacularly; a collision with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dropped him down the order, after Vettel made a good start from pole and held the early lead.

Verstappen got a 10 second penalty postrace for causing the collision, dropping the Dutch youngster from fourth to fifth.

Vettel was also passed by the McLaren of Fernando Alonso two laps from the end.

Ricciardo and Verstappen were not early contenders but the deployment of the safety car on the 32nd of 56 laps, after the Toro Rosso pair of Pierre Gasly (France) and Brendon Hartley (NZ) collided and left debris on the track, swung the race Red Bull’s way.

Hartley eventually pulled out four laps short of the finish to place 20th and last.

Hartley was at the tail of the field when Toro Rosso team management called him in, with the car having suffered problems throughout the race. — Reuters