Ricciardo gives McLaren its first F1 victory since 2012

Ricciardo led his teammate Lando Norris home in a McLaren 1-2 with Valtteri Bottas finishing third after making excellent progress in the first half of the race, having started last and then out of the mayhem after the incident that Verstappen and Hamilton eliminated benefited.

That happened at the very end of the pit stop phase of the race, when the Mercedes driver came out of the pits and tried to make friends with Norris, who had stopped one lap earlier, in the battle for third place.

But Verstappen, the pole sitter of the race and only behind Hamilton thanks to his wrong stop, shot alongside his title rival before the first corner.

They drove side by side past the first apex of the Rettifilo chicane and then, as Verstappen came over the large curbs that led to the second, he was shot into Hamilton’s side – the Mercedes still close by.

Then the contact put Verstappen over Hamilton’s rear wing, engine cover, roll bar and halo, with both cars trapped in the gravel on the outside of the chicane – the Red Bull stranded on top of the front of the Mercedes.

As a result, both retired and called the safety car, which initiated an exciting second half of the race.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, leaves after an accident with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

At the start, Verstappen and Ricciardo jumped off the line together, but the McLaren’s acceleration was better and Ricciardo was able to prevail next to his former team-mate on the run into the first corner.

With Ricciardo on the inside line, he easily took first place and pulled away, with Hamilton being the only one of the leaders to start on hard tires and not go around the outside of Norris with medium tires, who left the second part of the Rettifilo chicane.

When Ricciardo led the pack into the della Roggia chicane, Hamilton shot alongside Verstappen and the pair collided between the two peaks of the sequence – the title rivals had side wheel-to-wheel contact.

Hamilton therefore jumped over the curbs to cut the second vertex, which cost him momentum and allowed Norris to come back to third on the approach to the first Lesmo.

The race was then briefly interrupted by a virtual safety car phase that was called in so that debris could be removed from a shunt with Carlos Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi.

The latter attacked Charles Leclerc for fourth place in the della Roggia, but he too cut off the second vertex after being pushed off a train, and when he got back on the track, he encountered the following Sainz arch and went outside impaled in the wall the Ferrari went without space in an incident that wiped Giovinazzi’s front wing down and finally dropped him, and for which he was punished twice by the stewards with a five-second encore.

The VSC ended on the second lap, at the end of which Ricciardo was leading by 1.2 seconds over Verstappen, who then drove a fastest lap to ensure that when the system was activated he would be ready for the start of the fourth of 53 laps within the DRS -Range was.

The Red Bull was able to stay within a second but couldn’t get any closer for the next phase of the race as the two leaders pull away from Norris, who was under similar pressure from Hamilton.

Since Ricciardo and Verstappen drove more regularly in the mid-high 1:26 laps compared to Norris, the Briton gradually fell back from the rear of the Red Bull – his pace also brought Hamilton back towards Leclerc.

On lap 20, Ricciardo, who was still 0.9 seconds ahead of Verstappen, was 6.0 seconds ahead of his teammate as McLaren and Red Bull debated when it would be best to get rid of the media without which their drivers were struggling to stay alive get stuck in the pursuer behind the traffic.

During the first stint, Verstappen reported similar problems with his rear tires to Ricciardo and blocked on lap 21 on the approach to the first corner – the Dutchman slipped past the apex and bumped over the high curbs behind the second apex.

That meant Ricciardo’s lead grew to 1.4 seconds and he switched to the Hards at the end of the following lap.

Red Bull called Verstappen on lap 23, but a 11.1-second stop due to a slow change to the right meant no chance for him to take the lead.

The great danger for Ricciardo suddenly came from Hamilton when he had overtaken Norris with a brave step to the outside of the chicane della Roggia on lap 24, but that threat ended when the Mercedes driver pitted at the end of the next tour and the crash with Verstappen.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21 and the rest of the field at the start

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The race was neutralized for the next six laps by the safety car, with the intervention of which Leclerc and the pursuers were able to pits the McLarens and make up ground.

The order at the restart on lap 31 was Ricciardo, Leclerc, Norris, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Valtteri Bottas – who thanks to his engine change in qualifying before Friday, had steadily moved up from last place on the grid.

Bottas was able to get past slower rivals in a way that Hamilton had tried early in the race against Norris, and had come during the safety car to change the hards he had started on to medium.

Ricciardo dropped Leclerc at the restart, Norris fought the Ferrari in the Rettifilo chicane, then came inside the Curva Grande with a breathtaking explosion and chased his teammate.

Leclerc was soon overwhelmed by Perez – controversial when the Red Bull tripped over the curbs at the second vertex of the second chicane after failing to move around the outside – then Bottas, who took the Mercedes driver two tries, as Leclerc the first chicane started on lap 33, before he gave up the place again and then dashed past with a manageable slipstream on the run to the second chicane.

Norris put pressure on Ricciardo. Bottas eventually overtook Leclerc one lap in the first corner after his first attack failed. The Brit urged McLaren to tell his teammate to increase his pace.

Ricciardo did so under orders to show his ultimate pace on the hard tracks to the finish, which Norris brought into the high 1:25 minutes in the period immediately after the safety car, with Bottas being the greatest threat after Perez got a five Second encore for the incident in the second chicane with Leclerc.

But as the McLarens took off, Bottas’ attack stalled behind Perez – a move around the outside of the first vertex of the della Roggia chicane failed just as it looked like the Finn was ahead when he was at Leaving the second vertex lost momentum and the Red Bull moved forward again.

Over the remaining 20 laps, Ricciardo’s increased pace gradually pulled him away from Norris, who was told “It’s best for us where you are” after asking McLaren if the current order was his preference.

Norris was no longer in DRS danger in the closing stages, and Perez was also unable to threaten McLaren’s 2-1 – even as the field negotiated a second VSC stage when Nikita Mazepin’s Haas lost its drive and at the Outside of the Ascari chicane stopped on lap 43.

Compared to the middle third of the race, the final phase was much quieter, Ricciardo clinched his first victory with a 1.7 second advantage since Monaco 2018 and drove the fastest lap of the race on the last lap.

Bottas was pushed to third place by Perez’s penalty for failing to get past the goal. The Mexican ended up in fifth place behind Leclerc – but just ahead of Sainz.

Lance Stroll finished seventh but needs to be examined after the race as he may not have slowed from receiving yellow flags, with Fernando Alonso eighth.

George Russell was ninth ahead of Esteban Ocon, who at the start of the race had been given a five-second time extension due to a collision with Sebastian Vettel (12th) in the second chicane.

Yuki Tsunoda did not start the race because of a braking problem, his teammate Pierre Gasly retired early after a pre-start drama in the starting laps.