Ricciardo beats Vettel in Red Bull’s fight from the pits

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In their final race as team mates, Daniel Ricciardo decisively beat Sebastian Vettel after the two Red Bull drivers started from the pit lane following their qualifying infringement.

Ricciardo brought his car home in a remarkable fourth position – one place higher than he had qualified before both drivers were stripped of their times when their front wings were found to contravene the rules.

Ricciardo lined up first at the pit lane exit. After the start he and Vettel were soon making their way past the midfield runners. But on lap seven came the crucial moment which decided the outcome of their races. Ricciardo passed Kevin Magnussen – who like the Red Bull drivers had also started on the soft compound tyres – but Vettel was unable to get past the McLaren.

Red Bull eventually brought Vettel into the pits on lap 21, allowing him to jump ahead of the McLaren. But Ricciardo extended his stint by another eight laps, allowing him to consolidate his position among the front-runners.

While Vettel’s last pit stop dropped him behind the Force Indias, Ricciardo emerged on the tail of the Williams drivers, who he would have started immediately behind anyway had he lined up on the grid in his original qualifying position.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Ricciardo beats Vettel in Red Bull’s fight from the pits”

  1. “Ricciardo lined up first at the pit lane exit”

    Keith, I’m fairly sure that Ricciardo started behind Vettel from the pitlane, because that’s what your lap chart shows, moreover the Sky commentators were talking about why that was so even though Ricciardo had outqualified Vettel. Their explanation was that the quali times were wiped following the Red Bulls’ exclusion by the stewards, and on countback Vettel got to start ahead because his FP3 time was quicker.

    1. @tdog Maybe Sky didn’t have a good view of the pit lane exit? See:

      https://twitter.com/f1fanatic_co_uk/status/536651789484163073

      Will alter the code above to make it clearer (without wishing to get too technical, it doesn’t handle two drivers starting from the pit lane very well. Something to occupy me during the off-season…)

      1. Understood, thanks for the clarification.

    2. You are right @tdog – Martin was talking about Seb lining up in front of Dan but as @keithcollantine shows, they were clearly wrong!

      It doesn’t detract at all from the fact that Seb has been THUMPED by Dan this year. I didn’t see this coming and I doubt to be honest if anyone did. But in the exuberance of Lewis’s championship it should not be overlooked quite how good Dan has been and how ordinary he has made a 4 time World Champion look.

      And of course, I am Australian so bias alert!! :))

  2. Ferraris’ performance were just awful, an absolute low.

  3. Ricciardo “beat” Vettel? I think a more appropriate description would be “absolutely demolished”.

    1. Over the entire season .. so it comes as no surprise.

      Quite a quiet season for Vettel fans.. haven’t really heard a peep out of them.

      1. We don’t have much to talk about really :P

  4. The Dan ravers need to calm down , he definately had a great season but when a driver announces they are leaving , their performance always tails off, this is the law. ; )
    you aren’t going to work as hard to solve any problems you have or boost performance and the team won’t work as hard to help you. Its percentage stuff but at the sticky end its vital. But no doubt Ric did excellently but this race doesn’t tell you too much IMO. Taa for all the f1 related info this season from this site BTW.

    1. Not really a case with Alonso ;)

  5. Wow, Rosberg problem was really hit him alot, he even slower that Will Stevens in the last few laps

  6. I read that Vettel used to gain a lot of time with his breaking technique, which is pretty unique. Breaking inside of the curves. In this new car, he had to break on the straight and lost some of his edge that way…

    1. What was he breaking exactly? His car seemed pretty reliable for those 4 championships on the whole, and I don’t think he was actively contributing to any of the few mechanical issues he had during those years. And what is he breaking on the straight this year?

      Or did you maybe mean braking? :-)

  7. Yeah, it’s quite clear that Vettel’s race was ruined because he could not pass Magnussen. I’m curious to see how Ricciardo got ahead of him, Vettel didn’t even come close to overtaking him. Maybe Magnussen made a mistake, looking at the lap times on lap 7 Magnussen was 1.5 seconds slower than his pace, while Ricciardo’s lap was as good as the others, so maybe there wasn’t a battle between the two, just a mistake by Kevin.
    Anyway, that doesn’t take away the fact that Ricciardo had more pace and has had more pace all year long. But maybe a top 5 finish for Vettel could have been possible.

  8. I think this race was pretty representative for the the whole season between Dan and Seb. Dan works the tires way better and keeps grip levels up for much longer – that’s why he can stay out longer and with better exits overtake others quicker. If you look at VETs 2 stints on prime then you’ll see how much more he struggled with the line in turns 7, 8 and 9 and why he couldn’t get past Magnusson.

  9. It’s been amazing how Dan has been better than Seb in any way you can think of – pace, traffic, tyres, consistency…and it hasn’t changed all year. Seb was supposed to adapt, wasn’t he, but he hasn’t improved.

    I don’t see how Ferrari can be confident they have a driver lineup on a par with the other top teams. They could come up with a great car and still be fourth.

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