Ricciardo capitalizes on 'crazy race' for victory

Daniel Ricciardo says he benefited from "a crazy race" to take his first victory of the season in the chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having started from 10th place due to a crash in qualifying, Ricciardo needed an early pit stop due to debris in his brake duct and dropped to the back of the field. However, a number of Safety Car periods helped him make progress through the field before race leader Lewis Hamilton was forced to pit with a loose headrest and second-placed Sebastian Vettel was handed a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for hitting Hamilton.

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"It was a crazy race," Ricciardo said. "We knew the podium was a chance after the restart but then we heard the problems with Lewis and Seb.

"I made an unplanned pit stop at the beginning. After a few laps we had some debris I think in the brakes so we had to stop and clean it, so we dropped back to I think 17th place. Did I think then that I would the race today? Absolutely not. I would have put all of my money on it that it was very unlikely.

"Crazy race. This is the race we expected last year, with all the safety cars and all the chaos and we got it this year."

Ricciardo admits he only believed he was in with a chance of winning the race once both Hamilton and Vettel had dropped down the order due to their respective trips to the pit lane.

"Once they had their penalties and whatever was going on, I certainly believed I could win but you never know, obviously, until it's the end. But, sure, I believed the race was then in my hands so I kind of understood more or less the lap times the guys around me were doing and I knew the gap I had, so I was just trying to be consistent with the times I could do, more or less, and that was that.

"So yeah, just trying to match those times and get it home to the finish. It was nice on the last lap, I could finally smile a little bit."

Following his crash in qualifying, Ricciardo said it was his approach to try and avoid incidents in the race in order to capitalize on any opportunities ahead.

"Obviously, yesterday I was disappointed with the mistake but hey, I guess you have to make these to try and find that last little bit. I knew today would be a different outcome and we had to stay out of trouble and it certainly paid off today. Big thanks to Red Bull Racing, it was nice to get one car home and on the top step."