Ricciardo wins thrilling Canadian GP

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claims his maiden Formula One in a thrilling race where only eleven cars finished.

Australian Ricciardo now has two fourth places, two thirds and a victory in his last five races [AFP]

Daniel Ricciardo won the Canadian Grand Prix and broke the Mercedes stranglehold on the Formula One circuit.

The Red Bull driver earned his first Formula One victory and the first win this year for any driver other than Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Ricciardo passed Rosberg with two laps to go while Hamilton went out in the 48th lap with a brake problem.

Rosberg finished second, easily protecting his lead in the championship standings.

FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship
          Driver              Points

1  Nico Rosberg           140
2  Lewis Hamilton         118
3  Daniel Ricciardo         79
4  Fernando Alonso        69
5  Sebastian Vettel         60

Mercedes has been dominating Formula One this season, winning the first six races and sweeping the top two in five of them to put Rosberg and Hamilton 1-2 atop the championship standings with nearly twice as many points as third-place Fernando Alonso.

The streak ended when the two came tire-to-tire at Turn Seven and Hamilton was forced onto the grass to cut the corner of the chican and eventually was forced to stop.

Early Mercedes duel

Hamilton and Rosberg also duelled at the start, when they nearly touched tires and Hamilton dropped back. That allowed Vettel to move briefly into second place.

At just the fourth turn on the 70-lap race, Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi collided, destroying Bianchi’s car and knocking them both out of the competition.

Another crash marred the finish, when Felipe Massa drove right into the rear of Sergio Perez and sent the Mexican slamming into the wall.

Ricciardo may finally be coming out of the shadow of his more celebrated Red Bull teammate, the four-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel.

The 24-year-old Australian now has two fourth places, two thirds and a victory in his last five races.

Drivers had to contend with track temperatures of 48 C at the start, on a sun-drenched day on the Ile de Notre Dame in the St. Lawrence River off downtown Montreal.

The track, home to the Canadian Grand Prix since 1978, will get a face lift as part of a 10-year extension to keep the race in town through 2024.

Source: AP