Daniel Ricciardo needed a well-timed safety car to get into victory contention, but EDD STRAW explains how from that moment he drove an inspired race to take a victory that cements him as one of F1's superstars
Daniel Ricciardo had one slice of luck on his way to Hungarian Grand Prix victory. That came when Marcus Ericsson launched his Caterham into the wall too late for the top four to make it into the pits.
The Australian, who spent the early stages of the race running sixth, had dropped five seconds behind Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso thanks to being stuck behind Jenson Button's McLaren. It was enough of a delay to mean that he was able to make a late cut into the pits when the crash made a safety car inevitable.
This provided a vital leg-up in terms of track position, but still left Ricciardo with a lot of work to do to seal what proved to be a spectacular victory. Luck had a little to do with it, but this was a win made possible by the virtuosity of a driver who is looking less and less of an interloper among the elite, and increasingly an established part of it.
PHASE ONE: ROSBERG IN CONTROL
Prior to Ericsson's shunt, Rosberg ran away with it. Having held the lead from pole position, he set about building a gap. Thanks to Bottas getting around the outside of Vettel at Turn 1, Rosberg had a helpful Williams roadblock backing up the Red Bull.
Ericsson's crash came at the wrong moment for the early leaders © XPB |
By the time the safety car was deployed on lap eight, Rosberg's Mercedes was long past the pit entry. The bulk of the field pitted at the end of that lap, leaving only the four unfortunate stopouts to trudge around for another lap before heading in.
"We knew it was going to be a safety car, so told both boys to box," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "Seb was halfway around the last turn. Daniel managed to make the pitlane. The first four cars didn't make it in, so the group behind were in the pound seats."
Of the four early frontrunners, it was only Bottas who was eliminated from podium contention thanks to a 5.2s pitstop that relegated him to 11th. This round of pitstops also broke Button's race. He lost what was to become the lead to Ricciardo, having peeled into the pits in front of him, and was still second, but he was the only driver to take another set of intermediate tyres for the drying track.
It was a costly call by a team that placed too much confidence in what its weather service claimed. Button did pass Ricciardo for the lead at the restart, but it was a pyrrhic victory given that his intermediates were shot after just two laps, and he dropped to the back after pitting.
With Bottas and Button relegated to supporting acts, Rosberg, Vettel and Alonso were at least still in it, running fourth, seventh and eighth respectively.
PHASE TWO: BETWEEN THE SAFETY CARS
Things were already looking very good for Ricciardo. Like most, he was on the soft rubber and able to start building a lead over Felipe Massa, with an almighty battle raging for third involving Alonso, Jean-Eric Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton's race started badly as he went straight off the track © XPB |
Yes, that would be the same Hamilton who had started from the pits and then spun at Turn 2 on the opening lap, grazing the barrier with his left front. This was a needless error, the consequence of failing to account for cold brakes, having not been able to complete a warm-up lap. But in what was effectively a new car, built up around a spare chassis after his qualifying blaze, Hamilton had climbed to 13th by the time Ericsson crashed.
On the first green-flag lap, Hamilton found his way past Esteban Gutierrez, Bottas, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg to run ninth. That became seventh when Button and Kevin Magnussen both pitted their McLarens for slicks.
By the time Perez lost the rear of his Force India on the damp exit kerbing at the final corner and speared heavily into the concrete pitwall, Ricciardo had built up a five-second lead over Massa at the front.
After only nine and a half green-flag laps, and 15 in total on his soft Pirellis, Ricciardo had just crept into the Red Bull pit window, the distance into a stint where it is calculated as logical to pit in the event of a safety car. With 47 laps remaining, this divided the rest of the race into two stints on softs, and the team was surprised that so few rivals deduced the same. Only the two Williams runners followed Ricciardo in, both Massa and Bottas stopping for mediums.
"Yes, it was on the early side, but it enabled us to cut the race in half for the next two stints," said Horner. "We effectively split our cars and left Seb out because he'd stopped a lap later on the previous stint. Then it was a question of running our race."
PHASE THREE: RICCIARDO BIDES HIS TIME
When the race got back under way on lap 27, there were still five drivers realistically in contention. Alonso led from Vergne, but the Frenchman's Toro Rosso was never going to be quick enough to fight for victory in dry conditions, with Rosberg, Vettel, Hamilton and Ricciardo queued up behind.
Alonso led Vergne behind the second safety car © LAT |
At this stage, patience was Ricciardo's biggest virtue. He knew that the further he went before his final stop, the shorter the stint he would have on fresh softs at the end of the race. Add to that the fact that he wanted to be able to attack later in this stint, once others had stopped, and it was essential not to be too aggressive and root his tyres.
"Where Daniel was very intelligent was he didn't burn up his tyres in the pack and had enough rubber when those guys pitted," said Horner. "He was then able to use his pace and put in a long stint."
Ricciardo sat in sixth, giving him a box seat to watch Hamilton chasing Rosberg for fourth. But it wasn't long before the inevitable pitstops came. On lap 32 Rosberg stopped for another set of softs.
Team-mate Vettel then dropped his Red Bull exiting the last corner, very lightly kissing the inside wall and flat-spotting his tyres. This forced Vettel into the pits on lap 33 and reduced the number of victory contenders to just four, with Vergne then also removing himself from the mix by stopping for mediums a lap later.
PHASE FOUR: A FOUR-HORSE RACE
Alonso and then Hamilton headed for the pits on laps 38 and 39 respectively, the Spaniard opting for softs and, everyone assumed, one more stop, and Hamilton opting for mediums and a run to the end.
This allowed Ricciardo to move into the lead, with Massa on his mediums temporarily holding second place. Initially, in clean air the plan was for Ricciardo to build enough of a gap to avoid dropping behind the Williams when the Red Bull took on its final set of tyres. But Massa was struggling and stopped for the final time on lap 45, meaning he was no longer a concern. So Red Bull's plan then focused on Ricciardo extending the stint as long as possible while his laptimes held up.
Ricciardo had an engine scare in the middle of the race © LAT |
But there was a potential problem. One of the cylinders of the Renault engine propelling Ricciardo had, according to a sensor, drifted outside its operating parameters. On lap 43, shortly before Massa pitted, Ricciardo's pace dropped by a second.
"I had a scare in the middle of the race, for a few laps we had some issues," said Ricciardo. "Basically, we were down on power and had to get a bit crazy on the switches, so I thought the race could have potentially ended early. But we got through that."
His 'switch craziness', with the assistance of Renault, succeeded in disabling what was reckoned to be a misbehaving sensor, restoring the Red Bull to full pace. Ricciardo's lead over Alonso stood at 16 seconds once the problem was solved.
From laps 44-52, Ricciardo lost a total of around a second to Alonso, which was remarkable considering how much fresher the Ferrari driver's tyres were, but then he dropped a second per lap for the next two laps, meaning he was around 12 seconds clear when he dived for the pits.
PHASE FIVE: THE FINAL SHOOTOUT
With 16 laps remaining, the race situation was simple. Alonso led on soft rubber that would have to last 32 laps. Hamilton, on mediums and running to the end, was second ahead of Rosberg, who had to stop again.
While Mercedes was keen to play this down, Rosberg had clearly lost time behind Hamilton. The Briton had been asked to cede position to allow Rosberg to make the most of his soft rubber. But Hamilton refused to give way, understandably in the circumstances.
After all, Rosberg did not mount a serious attack and seemed to struggle to stay in DRS range. It was a mis-step by Mercedes, albeit an understandable one given the focus on maximising its own race result, and the pitwall didn't force the issue.
Rosberg's laptimes dropped by six tenths of a second when he caught up Hamilton. He spent 11 laps behind him before pitting at the end of lap 56 and rejoining at least three places lower than he would have done had he got past Hamilton.
By the time he cleared them, he was around 23 seconds behind the lead battle. Was that enough to cost him victory? Possibly, although it's perhaps more likely that he would have ended up behind Ricciardo anyway, meaning that at most it cost him second or third.
Mercedes team tensions flared up again © LAT |
Once Rosberg had cleared Kimi Raikkonen and the two Williams-Mercs, the lead quartet was running in reverse order of tyre health. Hamilton chipped away at Alonso's lead and with 10 laps to go was right with the Ferrari. Alonso was increasingly struggling for grip but, aside from once straightlining the chicane, didn't put a foot wrong in a remarkable drive.
Hamilton, who did have some problems that slightly compromised his end-of-straight speed, couldn't find a way past Alonso. This allowed the charging Ricciardo to close in and, with eight laps remaining, he had joined the battle.
Hamilton had to turn his attention to defending. With just three laps to go, he had a slight lock-up at Turn 1, allowing Ricciardo to get a run on him into the following left-hander. Hamilton defended to the inside and Ricciardo, locking up himself, slung his Red Bull around the outside and made the move stick.
From that moment, it was a foregone conclusion that he would pass Alonso for the lead. Ferrari's man, recognising that he was a sitting duck and that defending too robustly might also cost him a place to Hamilton, wasn't able to put up too much of a fight when Ricciardo made a late dive up the inside at the first corner next time around.
"There was only one way to win it and that was to get around them," said Ricciardo. "Obviously I had the advantage of the fresher tyres, but I knew they wouldn't make it easy.
"I attempted to pass Lewis into Turn 2 two laps before I eventually got him, but just locked up and went too wide. I had a second crack at it and I still locked up but I managed to just hang on and had a bit more grip around the outside.
"Once I got close enough to Fernando, I knew I just had to go for it. Being in that sandwich, Lewis was still in the DRS zone so I couldn't waste too much time."
Once past, Ricciardo pulled out a six-second lead by the flag, while Alonso did a great job to keep Hamilton at bay. Rosberg caught both late on, attempting to go around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 2 on the last lap and finding himself running out of road at the exit when his team-mate forced him wide.
But the championship fight and the acrimony between the two Mercedes drivers was just the support act at the Hungaroring. Ricciardo was the star, proving beyond any doubt that he is now one of the gold-standard drivers in F1.
Daniel Ricciardo needed a well-timed safety car to get into victory contention, but EDD STRAW explains how from that moment he drove an inspired race to take a victory that cements him as one of F1's superstars
Daniel Ricciardo had one slice of luck on his way to Hungarian Grand Prix victory. That came when Marcus Ericsson launched his Caterham into the wall too late for the top four to make it into the pits.
The Australian, who spent the early stages of the race running sixth, had dropped five seconds behind Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso thanks to being stuck behind Jenson Button's McLaren. It was enough of a delay to mean that he was able to make a late cut into the pits when the crash made a safety car inevitable.
This provided a vital leg-up in terms of track position, but still left Ricciardo with a lot of work to do to seal what proved to be a spectacular victory. Luck had a little to do with it, but this was a win made possible by the virtuosity of a driver who is looking less and less of an interloper among the elite, and increasingly an established part of it.
PHASE ONE: ROSBERG IN CONTROL
Prior to Ericsson's shunt, Rosberg ran away with it. Having held the lead from pole position, he set about building a gap. Thanks to Bottas getting around the outside of Vettel at Turn 1, Rosberg had a helpful Williams roadblock backing up the Red Bull.
Ericsson's crash came at the wrong moment for the early leaders © XPB |
By the time the safety car was deployed on lap eight, Rosberg's Mercedes was long past the pit entry. The bulk of the field pitted at the end of that lap, leaving only the four unfortunate stopouts to trudge around for another lap before heading in.
"We knew it was going to be a safety car, so told both boys to box," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "Seb was halfway around the last turn. Daniel managed to make the pitlane. The first four cars didn't make it in, so the group behind were in the pound seats."
Of the four early frontrunners, it was only Bottas who was eliminated from podium contention thanks to a 5.2s pitstop that relegated him to 11th. This round of pitstops also broke Button's race. He lost what was to become the lead to Ricciardo, having peeled into the pits in front of him, and was still second, but he was the only driver to take another set of intermediate tyres for the drying track.
It was a costly call by a team that placed too much confidence in what its weather service claimed. Button did pass Ricciardo for the lead at the restart, but it was a pyrrhic victory given that his intermediates were shot after just two laps, and he dropped to the back after pitting.
With Bottas and Button relegated to supporting acts, Rosberg, Vettel and Alonso were at least still in it, running fourth, seventh and eighth respectively.
PHASE TWO: BETWEEN THE SAFETY CARS
Things were already looking very good for Ricciardo. Like most, he was on the soft rubber and able to start building a lead over Felipe Massa, with an almighty battle raging for third involving Alonso, Jean-Eric Vergne, Rosberg, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton's race started badly as he went straight off the track © XPB |
Yes, that would be the same Hamilton who had started from the pits and then spun at Turn 2 on the opening lap, grazing the barrier with his left front. This was a needless error, the consequence of failing to account for cold brakes, having not been able to complete a warm-up lap. But in what was effectively a new car, built up around a spare chassis after his qualifying blaze, Hamilton had climbed to 13th by the time Ericsson crashed.
On the first green-flag lap, Hamilton found his way past Esteban Gutierrez, Bottas, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg to run ninth. That became seventh when Button and Kevin Magnussen both pitted their McLarens for slicks.
By the time Perez lost the rear of his Force India on the damp exit kerbing at the final corner and speared heavily into the concrete pitwall, Ricciardo had built up a five-second lead over Massa at the front.
After only nine and a half green-flag laps, and 15 in total on his soft Pirellis, Ricciardo had just crept into the Red Bull pit window, the distance into a stint where it is calculated as logical to pit in the event of a safety car. With 47 laps remaining, this divided the rest of the race into two stints on softs, and the team was surprised that so few rivals deduced the same. Only the two Williams runners followed Ricciardo in, both Massa and Bottas stopping for mediums.
"Yes, it was on the early side, but it enabled us to cut the race in half for the next two stints," said Horner. "We effectively split our cars and left Seb out because he'd stopped a lap later on the previous stint. Then it was a question of running our race."
PHASE THREE: RICCIARDO BIDES HIS TIME
When the race got back under way on lap 27, there were still five drivers realistically in contention. Alonso led from Vergne, but the Frenchman's Toro Rosso was never going to be quick enough to fight for victory in dry conditions, with Rosberg, Vettel, Hamilton and Ricciardo queued up behind.
Alonso led Vergne behind the second safety car © LAT |
At this stage, patience was Ricciardo's biggest virtue. He knew that the further he went before his final stop, the shorter the stint he would have on fresh softs at the end of the race. Add to that the fact that he wanted to be able to attack later in this stint, once others had stopped, and it was essential not to be too aggressive and root his tyres.
"Where Daniel was very intelligent was he didn't burn up his tyres in the pack and had enough rubber when those guys pitted," said Horner. "He was then able to use his pace and put in a long stint."
Ricciardo sat in sixth, giving him a box seat to watch Hamilton chasing Rosberg for fourth. But it wasn't long before the inevitable pitstops came. On lap 32 Rosberg stopped for another set of softs.
Team-mate Vettel then dropped his Red Bull exiting the last corner, very lightly kissing the inside wall and flat-spotting his tyres. This forced Vettel into the pits on lap 33 and reduced the number of victory contenders to just four, with Vergne then also removing himself from the mix by stopping for mediums a lap later.
PHASE FOUR: A FOUR-HORSE RACE
Alonso and then Hamilton headed for the pits on laps 38 and 39 respectively, the Spaniard opting for softs and, everyone assumed, one more stop, and Hamilton opting for mediums and a run to the end.
This allowed Ricciardo to move into the lead, with Massa on his mediums temporarily holding second place. Initially, in clean air the plan was for Ricciardo to build enough of a gap to avoid dropping behind the Williams when the Red Bull took on its final set of tyres. But Massa was struggling and stopped for the final time on lap 45, meaning he was no longer a concern. So Red Bull's plan then focused on Ricciardo extending the stint as long as possible while his laptimes held up.
Ricciardo had an engine scare in the middle of the race © LAT |
But there was a potential problem. One of the cylinders of the Renault engine propelling Ricciardo had, according to a sensor, drifted outside its operating parameters. On lap 43, shortly before Massa pitted, Ricciardo's pace dropped by a second.
"I had a scare in the middle of the race, for a few laps we had some issues," said Ricciardo. "Basically, we were down on power and had to get a bit crazy on the switches, so I thought the race could have potentially ended early. But we got through that."
His 'switch craziness', with the assistance of Renault, succeeded in disabling what was reckoned to be a misbehaving sensor, restoring the Red Bull to full pace. Ricciardo's lead over Alonso stood at 16 seconds once the problem was solved.
From laps 44-52, Ricciardo lost a total of around a second to Alonso, which was remarkable considering how much fresher the Ferrari driver's tyres were, but then he dropped a second per lap for the next two laps, meaning he was around 12 seconds clear when he dived for the pits.
PHASE FIVE: THE FINAL SHOOTOUT
With 16 laps remaining, the race situation was simple. Alonso led on soft rubber that would have to last 32 laps. Hamilton, on mediums and running to the end, was second ahead of Rosberg, who had to stop again.
While Mercedes was keen to play this down, Rosberg had clearly lost time behind Hamilton. The Briton had been asked to cede position to allow Rosberg to make the most of his soft rubber. But Hamilton refused to give way, understandably in the circumstances.
After all, Rosberg did not mount a serious attack and seemed to struggle to stay in DRS range. It was a mis-step by Mercedes, albeit an understandable one given the focus on maximising its own race result, and the pitwall didn't force the issue.
Rosberg's laptimes dropped by six tenths of a second when he caught up Hamilton. He spent 11 laps behind him before pitting at the end of lap 56 and rejoining at least three places lower than he would have done had he got past Hamilton.
By the time he cleared them, he was around 23 seconds behind the lead battle. Was that enough to cost him victory? Possibly, although it's perhaps more likely that he would have ended up behind Ricciardo anyway, meaning that at most it cost him second or third.
Mercedes team tensions flared up again © LAT |
Once Rosberg had cleared Kimi Raikkonen and the two Williams-Mercs, the lead quartet was running in reverse order of tyre health. Hamilton chipped away at Alonso's lead and with 10 laps to go was right with the Ferrari. Alonso was increasingly struggling for grip but, aside from once straightlining the chicane, didn't put a foot wrong in a remarkable drive.
Hamilton, who did have some problems that slightly compromised his end-of-straight speed, couldn't find a way past Alonso. This allowed the charging Ricciardo to close in and, with eight laps remaining, he had joined the battle.
Hamilton had to turn his attention to defending. With just three laps to go, he had a slight lock-up at Turn 1, allowing Ricciardo to get a run on him into the following left-hander. Hamilton defended to the inside and Ricciardo, locking up himself, slung his Red Bull around the outside and made the move stick.
From that moment, it was a foregone conclusion that he would pass Alonso for the lead. Ferrari's man, recognising that he was a sitting duck and that defending too robustly might also cost him a place to Hamilton, wasn't able to put up too much of a fight when Ricciardo made a late dive up the inside at the first corner next time around.
"There was only one way to win it and that was to get around them," said Ricciardo. "Obviously I had the advantage of the fresher tyres, but I knew they wouldn't make it easy.
"I attempted to pass Lewis into Turn 2 two laps before I eventually got him, but just locked up and went too wide. I had a second crack at it and I still locked up but I managed to just hang on and had a bit more grip around the outside.
"Once I got close enough to Fernando, I knew I just had to go for it. Being in that sandwich, Lewis was still in the DRS zone so I couldn't waste too much time."
Once past, Ricciardo pulled out a six-second lead by the flag, while Alonso did a great job to keep Hamilton at bay. Rosberg caught both late on, attempting to go around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 2 on the last lap and finding himself running out of road at the exit when his team-mate forced him wide.
But the championship fight and the acrimony between the two Mercedes drivers was just the support act at the Hungaroring. Ricciardo was the star, proving beyond any doubt that he is now one of the gold-standard drivers in F1.
