Chinese GP: Top 3 Summary

Ricciardo came from nowhere to win the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix after a phenomenal race. Bottas and Raikkonen completed the podium after all drivers experienced up and downs.

Daniel Ricciardo

Starting with the race winner and the Australian played his cards right to opt for a pit-stop as soon as the safety car was announced.

Ricciardo was in turn 14 as the safety car came out and Red Bull told him to box. This move was the move that enabled the Australian to win his 6th Grand Prix.

The fresh, medium tyres gave his Red Bull grip and dominance over his rivals ahead. Swift passes over Hamilton and Vettel primed him for Bottas.

He took a little longer to pass the silver arrow but managed it on lap 45. He surprised himself as much as he surprised us.

He said: “This is the best reward possible” after expecting to start from the pits with his engine issue.

Valtteri Bottas

Once he made the undercut work on lap 27, he probably felt like he’d semi won the race. He came out of the pits in front of Vettel, obviously on fresher tyres. The expectation was that a fight between him and Vettel would last for the remainder of the race.

After Verstappen collided with Vettel, he must have thought once again the race was his. But charging through the field, Ricciardo came to surprise him.

Bottas had one last battle with Kimi and managed to hold him off to take 2nd.

Bottas says he is feeling “disappointed” as the “win slipped away”.

Kimi Raikkonen

It was looking as if Kimi was on a bad strategy. Despite leading the race for a period of time, Kimi dropped to 6th after his pitstop.

The 38-year-old was the second favourite to Vettel but with Vettel’s incident late on in the race, he took advantage of the opportunity to move up the field.

And move into 3rd he did. He was pushing hard for a number of laps towards the end of the Grand Prix but he couldn’t find the power and performance to overtake Bottas.