Major blunder ruins everything for Daniel Ricciardo in Baku

Daniel Ricciardo never stood a chance in Baku after a disastrous twist earlier in the weekend set the tone for how his race would pan out.

There’s always next week.

Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t work any miracles as his disastrous qualifying session prevented him from having a real crack at the Azerbaijan GP, but the Aussie still managed to walk away with some points.

The 31-year-old finished ninth in Baku, moving up four places from his starting position on the grid as the dramatic race claimed some high-profile victims in the dying laps, causing plenty of pain for Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Stream Every Practice, Qualifier & Race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship™ Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Verstappen and Hamilton both crashed out near the end, paving the way for an unexpected podium of Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).

A crash in qualifying saw Ricciardo start the main event in 13th but thanks to the late fireworks he was able to climb up into the points. He was still well behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris yet again this season, as the young Brit crossed the line in fifth.

“There were moments today in the race where I was thinking, ‘I hope it becomes a bit more exciting’ and suddenly it did,” Ricciardo said afterwards.

“We had some positive moments, but also a few difficult periods. I flat-spotted the hard (tyres) a bit, so that became tricky for the last few laps before the red flag, but not too bad beforehand.

“The last start, I felt like I got a good launch, and had a good run on the outside but there wasn’t really much room with a couple of cars on the inside. It just all bottlenecked into Turn Two and I felt a hit from behind. I couldn’t really do much, but we’ll keep working on our plan and keep moving forward.”

Daniel Ricciardo had a quiet day in Baku.

Ricciardo was realistic about his chances in the race after putting himself on the back foot with that crash in qualifying.

“It was Baku really, what can you say?” Ricciardo added. “It’s a weekend where you always have highs and lows and you know, Saturday (qualifying) was frustrating ... you never feel good crashing the car, gives the mechanics extra work and I don’t like doing that because I’m a nice guy.

“I wasn’t mad because I was trying to find the limit so I’m glad that I explored but obviously this track bites.

“We’ll be able to explore a bit more in the triple header and a bit more open, bit more forgiving. We got double points, we survived a crazy race.”

Norris, fresh off a podium finish in Monaco, was happy with how his own race panned out, acknowledging other teams’ misfortune allowed McLaren to finish on a higher note.

“Happy with the end result today, fifth was the best we could do,” he said. “It was a long race with it being difficult to overtake in the middle.

“There were a few crashes here and there that allowed us to gain a few places, and then two overtakes on the final restart was great.

“I think it was a good recovery from where we were at the beginning of the race after a pretty poor lap one, just because I got unlucky. A decent amount of points for us as a team.”

Azerbaijan GP: Top 10

1) Sergio Perez — Red Bull

2) Sebastian Vettel — Aston Martin

3) Pierre Gasly — AlphaTauri

4) Charles Leclerc — Ferrari

5) Lando Norris — McLaren

6) Fernando Alonso — Alpine

7) Yuki Tsunoda — AlphaTauri

8) Carlos Sainz — Ferrari

9) Daniel Ricciardo — McLaren

10) Kimi Raikkonen — Alfa Romeo

Originally published as Major blunder ruins everything for Daniel Ricciardo in Baku