Well it is safe to say that heading into this weekend, not too many people expected Red Bull Racing to pick up a first place and a third place finish, me included. It took a catalogue of events to occur for Daniel Ricciardo to pick up a very well deserved victory and for Red Bull Racing to pick up their first race win of 2014.
Renault engines seemed notably better on the straights here compared to other events. Toro Rosso was well into the top 10 in the speed traps and it was mostly Ferrari-powered cars towards the rear of the speed traps. Both drivers also performed exceptionally well, arguably outdriving the car, and a little bit of luck from the front of the pack gave Red Bull by far their best result of 2014 so far.
Canadian GP Review
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Q: P3
R: P3
Looked well off the pace on both Friday and Saturday until the very last moments of Q3 where he pulled out an excellent lap to beat Felipe Massa to P3 by the massive margin of two-thousandths of a second. Vettel generally had a strong race but teammate Ricciardo had a slightly different strategy which gave him the edge on Sunday. He was a lot more gracious in defeat and was very happy for his teammate compared to the Mercedes squabble at Monaco. These two drivers clearly have a lot of respect for each other and at the moment it looks like a brilliant partnership. In the race he overtook Sergio Perez towards the end and was incredibly lucky to not get involved in the contact between the Force India driver and Massa on the last lap. P3 is a strong result considering that he is still struggling with the car.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Q: P6
R: P1
The 105th driver to win a World Championship race and a hugely popular win, and it was one he certainly deserved. He was absolutely livid with himself to only line up sixth in qualifying but battled through the field brilliantly to take his first win as he tortured the wounded Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. This is sure to be the first of many wins for the massively smiley Australian, who like Moto GP champion Marc Marquez, is sometimes being referred to as the Smiling Assassin.
This result is absolutely mega for Red Bull before they go ‘home’ for the first time to race in Austria at their home track. If they could take 40 points on their weakest circuit, then they can surely at the very least fight for best of the rest again at the Red Bull Ring as the car continues to get better. Red Bull could also fight for best of the rest in most of the races this season if this is the case, which considering where they were in February, is a massive achievement.
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