Stunning well deserved victory for Daniel Ricciardo

Montreal, June 8, 2014 – High temperatures in Montreal, and a lengthy safety car period right at the start of the race, meant that tyre strategy formed a central part of a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix. The race was won by Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, with the top five separated by just five seconds in the closing stages of the race. Ricciardo took second from Sergio Perez in an outstanding move on lap 66 and then moved into the lead in a daring but confident manouvre on lap 68  from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.
 
Vettel seized third from Perez on the penultimate lap, steering clear of a collision between the Mexican and Felipe Massa. Ricciardo took the lead with just two laps to go, from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel completed the podium. All three adopted a two-stop strategy. Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire on lap 46 owing to overheating rear brakes. The highest-placed one-stopper was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg in fifth, who started on the soft tyre and completed a 41-lap stint before his single stop from the soft to the supersoft. Sergio Perez also stopped only once: switching from the supersoft to the soft on lap 35; exactly half-distance.
 
An accident on the final lap between him and Williams driver Felipe Massa, while both were fighting for a possible podium, meant that neither could finish the race, which concluded behind the safety car. Nonetheless, both their strategies had launched them into podium contention, with Massa benefiting from the extra speed of tyres that were considerably younger than those of his rivals during the final stint. Sergio Perez has been hit with a five-place grid penalty for the Austrian GP after stewards judged the Force India driver had caused the spectacular crash with Felipe Massa which put both drivers out of the Canadian GP.  Marussia’s Max Chilton also has been handed a three-place demotion for spinning into his team-mate Jules Bianchi on lap one.
 

Daniel Ricciardo: WINNER“I’m a grand prix winner! I think it still seems a bit surreal to be honest, just because it all happened so quickly at the end. I was third for a while and then it all happened in a really exciting fashion. Once I got past Perez I knew I just had to drive clean and get in Rosberg’s DRS zone and, from then on, it was just awesome. Finishing under the safety car made it a bit weird, but I wanted to make sure the two drivers who were in the accident were okay before I started celebrating. We achieved a great result today with first and third – so let’s enjoy it – but we will still have some work to do also. This will motivate the guys to work even harder and find even more, so I’m sure it will keep coming even better for us at the next few races.”

 
Nico Rosberg, 2nd Mercedes Petronas  –That was a big battle all the way through today! I had a tough start but I was able to defend in the first few corners and fight against Lewis. The race went smoothly for a while then both cars suddenly lost the MGU-K system and a lot of power which was really tough. Then I lost some time in the second pit stop which let Lewis jump me and I was struggling to cool the rear brakes down so it was all happening. Towards the end of the race, I tried to defend against Sergio which was fine but Daniel was too fast on the straights with much more power than I had available and he was able to get past. With so much going on, I had to ask my engineer where I finished at the end as I thought I was probably about fifth or sixth. I was so happy to hear that I was in P2! They are important points for me in the championship, so it was a tough but ultimately good day. Congratulations to Daniel for his first Formula One win.

Sebastian Vettel: 3rd, –“Congratulations to Daniel for his first win, which is very, very special, so I’m happy for him and happy for the team, especially after such a horrible winter. It’s nice to be able to finally break through to get a win this year and capitalise on Mercedes having a problem. I think we could have taken more risk with the strategy today – but it’s hard to know exactly what was going on around me when I’m not sitting on the pit wall. We have developed the car a lot this year, so we are going in the right direction, but we need to develop it even more for the straights, so there is still a lot of work ahead of us. We are here to keep pushing and to keep doing our best.”

 
Sergio Perez: Sahara Force India -“On the final lap I was defending my position going into turn one when I suddenly got hit from behind. It was a big impact, but I am okay. I’m really sad for the team because we had an amazing race today and the one-stop strategy was working perfectly. It was not easy in the final laps and I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico [Rosberg] for the lead. Daniel [Ricciardo] managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical issue with my car, but I managed to reset the system for the final couple of laps. The podium was possible today and I’m just very disappointed for the points we have lost.”
 
Felipe Massa, DNF Williams Martini: I was one of the quickest guys on the track, so we lost many points today. I’m happy that I’m here with no problems but I’m so disappointed for what happened with Perez, and also for the pitstop because I think maybe we could even have fought for victory today. But it shows we have a good car and I’m convinced the next race will be better.
 

Valtteri Bottas Williams Martini: Not our day really. The beginning of the race was ok but Red Bull was a little bit stronger than expected, so we were looking to fight for fourth position. We need to look back at the second pitstop in terms of timing and the stop because I didn’t come back out where I should have. I was then in traffic, stuck behind the Force India, which overheated the engine and brakes, and I had to save everything to get to the flag.

 
Lewis Hamilton, DNF, Mercedes Petronas – I did the best that I could out there today and felt like I was having a strong race but unfortunately it just wasn’t our day. Montreal has been a good track for me so to come here and not finish is disappointing but there are plenty more races ahead of us this season so let’s hope for better fortune. There was nothing I could do about our issues really. We were managing the loss of power but as soon as I finally made the jump on Nico in the second pit stop, my brakes failed going into turn 10. It’s great for the team that Nico was able to hold on and get second place today but it’s tough for me. That’s two DNFs now this season and now I have to try and recover the points gap again. But these are learning experiences: we’ll learn as a team and get stronger. Congratulations to Daniel today. It’s awesome for him to get his first win and I know this will be a really special day for him.