Ricciardo wins Azerbaijan Grand Prix amidst Hamilton and Vettel tussle

In an extremely eventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo took 1st place followed by Valterri Bottas and in a surprising 3rd place, Lance Stroll. Stroll took his first podium finish in Formula 1 where he was in second place position before Bottas overtook him just before reaching the chequered flag on the last straight.

Here are the highlights from the race.

The most surprising turn of events came when the safety car was deployed and a tussle between Hamilton and Vettel who were at the first two positions at the time.

That was truly the weirdest event which unfolded. Thanks to that, Vettel was given a penalty. But thanks to an improperly fitted headrest on Hamilton’s car, the Brit had to pit again around the same time Vettel took his penalty stoppage. After all that, Vettel managed to exit out just in front of Hamilton.

“It’s difficult to swallow a result like this after a strong weekend. I drove my heart out today right to the line – I gave it everything. I know the team will be devastated about the issue with the headrest, but what we have to take away from this weekend is the great performance we have shown. We all feel that pain, but it’s on me to gather my thoughts and try and lead the team through this adversity. We’ll pull together and move forwards. I’m proud of my performance and I hope we can take the speed we’ve shown this weekend forward. I definitely didn’t brake-test Sebastian. I controlled the pace under the Safety Car and, just like with the other restarts, I slowed down in the same place on the entry to T15. At that point, it is up to me to control the pace and then I felt a bump from behind. But that wasn’t the issue for me – everybody saw clearly what happened after. All the young kids in other series look up to us, as champions, to set an example and that is not the behaviour you expect to see from a multiple champion. But we know that when times get tough, true colours show, and we have managed to apply some good pressure in the last weeks. Personally, I want to do my talking on the track and win this championship in the right way. More than ever after this weekend, I believe we can.” – Lewis Hamilton

“First of all, I think that today the car was very good. The pace was strong in the race. I think you could see that we were losing a bit here and there, but overall it was a good race. It was a very busy start, and Vallteri was very aggressive. As for what happened at the restart from the safety car, I don’t know why I got the penalty and Lewis didn’t. It’s disappointing because it could have been a better result. I don’t have a problem with Lewis but I just think that what he did on the track was not ok. By now the decision is done but, in an episode like this one, I still think that if you give out a penalty, then it should be to both drivers.” – Sebastian Vettel

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	51	2:03:55.573	25
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	51	+3.904s	18
3	18	Lance Stroll	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	51	+4.009s	15
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	51	+5.976s	12
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	51	+6.188s	10
6	31	Esteban Ocon	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	51	+30.298s	8
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	51	+41.753s	6
8	55	Carlos Sainz	TORO ROSSO	51	+49.400s	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	MCLAREN HONDA	51	+59.551s	2
10	94	Pascal Wehrlein	SAUBER FERRARI	51	+89.093s	1
11	9	Marcus Ericsson	SAUBER FERRARI	51	+91.794s	0
12	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	MCLAREN HONDA	51	+92.160s	0
13	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	50	+1 lap	0
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FERRARI	46	DNF	0
NC	11	Sergio Perez	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	39	DNF	0
NC	19	Felipe Massa	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	25	DNF	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	24	DNF	0
NC	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	12	DNF	0
NC	26	Daniil Kvyat	TORO ROSSO	9	DNF	0
NC	30	Jolyon Palmer	RENAULT	7	DNF	0