The 2014 season might be dominated by Mercedes, but in Canada it was Daniel Ricciardo taking his first victory in Formula One for Red Bull Racing.
Mercedes had dominated the weekend, but mid-way through the race the championship leaders started to struggle mechanically.
Both cars first suffered with power issues, with race leader Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton slowing down by around 2 seconds per lap.
Then as the duo battled for the lead Hamilton suffered a break failure which forced him to retire. Rosberg however continued, changing settings to avoid the same braking issue and continued to lead the race.
With just five laps remaining Ricciardo was in third position, behind the Force India of Sergio Perez and race leader Nico Rosberg.
On the entry into the first corner of the lap, Ricciardo made one of the moves of the Grand Prix, running around the outside of Perez, locking up slightly, touching the grass before recovering going into turn 2.
With two laps to go Ricciardo makes his move for the lead heading into the final chicane, using the DRS to breeze past the now limping Mercedes.
One lap later and the Massa/Perez shunt brought out the safety car for the Australian to win his first Grand Prix under the yellow flag.
‘I pictured myself as a kid standing up on top of the podium and when you’re up there it feels a bit weird, It sounds awesome. Really good, terrific. Still seems a bit surreal, just because it happened so quickly.’ Ricciardo told the BBC.
‘It’s not that we were leading the whole race, so it’s not that I had time to understand that I was going to win, It all happened in the last few laps, so I think that’s why it’s still taking a while to comprehend in my head.
‘But really nice, a really good feeling. The race came to life at the end. Mercedes had their issues and it enabled us to close on them.’
Ricciardo takes thrilling maiden F1 win
