Watch: Daniel Ricciardo proves why he's dubbed as best F1 overtaker in breathtaking 2018 move on Valtteri Bottas

Daniel Ricciardo's victory at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix was anything but straightforward
Daniel Ricciardo's victory at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix was anything but straightforward

By lap 45 of 56 at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo, in his Red Bull was hounding Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes for the lead of the race. As the pair headed into the turn five kink followed by the turn six hairpin, Ricciardo was nearly 1.5 seconds behind the Finn.

Bottas quickly moved inside and covered off the inside line. But Ricciardo braked just a split second later and squeezed his RB14 into the narrow gap to emerge out of the corner, leading the race. He then went on to seal his sixth career victory by nearly ten seconds.

The victory was his second-to-last with Red Bull and was possibly one of the most hard-fought. He barely got out of qualifying after his car suffered mechanical issues and lined up last of all the top cars come race day.

Until the lap 28 safety car, brought out after a collision between the two Toro Rosso’s, Ricciardo was having a lonely race in P5. But some quick thinking from Red Bull meant both their cars had fresh tires compared to their rivals.

Ricciardo initially followed Max Verstappen through the field but overtook his teammate after the latter made a mistake while trying to pass Lewis Hamilton. He passed each car one-by-one and lap after lap with methodical precision, much to the joy of the Chinese crowd and Red Bull’s mechanics.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were powerless to stop the Australian, while Valtteri Bottas’s brave defense was insufficient to deny Ricciardo a much-deserved victory.


Daniel Ricciardo has a reputation of winning the unlikeliest of races

While at Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo notched up more than half-a-dozen wins, most of them from outside the front row, despite being in an inferior car compared to Ferrari and Mercedes.

The late-braking maneuver has been Ricciardo’s signature move throughout his career, but particularly during his Red Bull days. Dubbed the “last of the late breaker” by F1 pundit Martin Brundle, Ricciardo’s ability to scythe through the field to “steal” the unlikeliest of races has been phenomenal.

Just five weeks after his triumph in China, Daniel Ricciardo also sealed his last win with Red Bull (and in F1 until his victory in Monza last year) in Monaco. The race was one of the few in which Riccardo started on pole and went to seal the race win.

While it may seem like a straightforward affair given the difficulty in overtaking at Monaco. Yet, Ricciardo’s race was anything but straightforward as he fought off a faster Sebastian Vettel in a Ferrari after losing a quarter of his engine’s power.

Throughout the race, Ricciardo expertly managed his degrading power unit while ensuring that Vettel didn’t pass him in crucial areas around the circuit to take one of the most emphatic Monte Carlo victories in F1 history.

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