Daniel Ricciardo fools Sebastian Vettel at Chinese Grand Prix

SEBASTIAN Vettel got the better of Daniel Ricciardo in China, but the Aussie had a secret the German was oblivious to.

Cop that Seb.

SO near yet so far.

That was the story for Daniel Ricciardo in Shanghai as he missed out on gracing the podium at day’s end, coming fourth in the Chinese Grand Prix.

It was undoubtedly a big improvement on his first grand prix of the year in Melbourne two weeks ago, where mechanical issues cut his race short, but the Aussie crossed the line with mixed emotions.

Starting in fifth position on the grid Ricciardo quickly worked his way up to second behind eventual winner Lewis Hamilton in a chaotic start marred by the safety car coming out twice in the opening 10 laps.

But Max Verstappen came from 16th in a startling progression through the field to eventually get past his Red Bull colleague, then Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel also passed the 27-year-old and Ricciardo was relegated to fourth.

He was engaged in a tense finish with Verstappen, trying desperately to get past in the final laps as the Dutchman defended valiantly, but he wasn’t able to push hard enough to get on the podium.

Vettel’s passing manoeuvre on Ricciardo was driving at its best but it wasn’t without its drama. The two cars banged together as the Honey Badger tried to hold his ground, but ultimately the Ferrari was too quick and he got around the outside.

Ricciardo couldn’t stop Vettel from passing him.

Vettel said the contact wasn’t intentional.

“Not intentionally! So maybe we need to get used to the wide cars. I had a worse exit because I was going around the outside, but I had the inside for the next corner, so that’s why I went for it and it worked,” he said.

“It was good fun. I was afraid there might be some damage, but I think both of our cars were fine, it’s just wheel-to-wheel racing which is what it should be.”

While Vettel put the contact down to the heat of the battle, Ricciardo had some news for the German after the race. He revealed it wasn’t entirely accidental on his part.

“I was honestly a bit bored, so I just thought let’s bang some wheels and get the crowd excited,” Ricciardo said, per autosport.com. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t intentional, but I knew there was no harm done.

“A little bit of smoke for the fans.”

RICCIARDO’S MESSAGE FOR RED BULL

Red Bull still lacks pace in dry conditions.

At the moment, Red Bull simply can’t match Mercedes and Ferrari for pace.

Poorer than hoped performances in winter testing and car troubles for Ricciardo in Melbourne and for Verstappen in qualifying in China have raised more questions than answers about the new RB13.

While the two Red Bull drivers both showed good pace at different stages of Sunday’s grand prix, the third and fourth placings are a bit misleading. Conditions were miserable in Shanghai which helped boost the energy drink team’s performance.

After qualifying Ricciardo said he was hoping for rain on race day to level the playing field and while the deluge never came in the 56 laps, he admits the somewhat damp conditions were responsible for the solid team outing.

With that in mind, he’s urged Red Bull to find more speed on dry tracks if the team wants to seriously challenge for the championship later in the season.

“It was condition-dependent,” Ricciardo said. “We’re still 45 seconds off the win so we know we’ve got work to do. As a team it’s obviously a good result to get third and fourth. That’s a positive but we’ve still got some speed to find.”

He also said issues with his tyres in the first stint of the race prevented him from pushing for the lead.

“That first stint was frustrating,” said Ricciardo. “We couldn’t keep on top of the front tyres, we killed them quite quickly and got eaten up by the others.

“I was trying to hang on obviously, but I don’t think it was a fight I was ever going to come out winning.”

His crew made an adjustment to the car on his second pit stop on lap 33 which saw his car “come to life” but it was too little too late.

HAMILTON SHOWS HIS CLASS AS BOTTAS FALTERS

Bottas knows he stuffed up.

After edging out Vettel for pole position, Lewis Hamilton delivered a masterclass of front running to claim his 54th F1 victory.

“Lewis on his day is in a different league. On a difficult day and difficult conditions there’s nobody else I’d rather have in the car,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said.

In contrast, teammate Valtteri Bottas owned up to what he described as a “stupid mistake” after the Finn spun when warming up his tyres behind the safety car, eventually finishing sixth.

“Valtteri threw it away,” accepted Wolff, and Bottas took full responsibility for his poor result.

“I’m very disappointed with today. I made a good start but it didn’t go so well from there,” Bottas said. “Yes, we lost some time in the pit stop but it was nothing compared to what we lost with my mistake.

“I was trying everything I could to get temperature in the tyres behind the safety car but went too aggressive and lost control of the car. It was entirely my fault. I’m really sorry for the team and the points we lost today.”

But of greater concern to Mercedes, who has dominated the Chinese GP event in recent seasons, was further evidence that Ferrari is currently able to match its race-day pace.

“It looks like we are very close on pace with Ferrari. I expect it to ping-pong through the season,” Wolff said. “One race we will be ahead, another they will.”

Maurizio Arrivabene, Wolff’s counterpart at Ferrari, added: “We had bad luck with the safety car but in a race like this sometimes you are lucky sometimes you are not. The most important thing is that with our car we are finally able to fight with Mercedes.”

— with Sky Sports