Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo came from 14th on the grid to finish 6th in the Brazilian Grand Prix – but his race nearly ended on lap one after being spun around during one of his daring overtaking moves.
The spectacular incident on the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo brought out the safety car and Ricciardo, whose Red Bull luckily had only tyre damage, was able to get back to the pits for a fresh set without losing more time.
“You do run a bit of a risk (overtaking) on the outside but you’ve got to go for it,” Ricciardo said.
“I guess three-into-one didn’t work today.”
He then set to work passing the bulk of the field to finish behinf teammate Max Verstappen.
Up front, it was Sebastien Vettel all the way.
He had a great start in the Ferrari, getting past pole sitter Valtteri Bottas, with the Finn having to settle for second spot with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen third.
Lewis Hamilton had a stirring drive from the back of the 20-car field to get his Mercedes up to fourth place, finishing just 5sec behind Raikkonen.
The Red Bulls simply didn’t have the pace of the quartet up front but claimed a fistful of points with fifth and sixth places, while home town hero Felipe Massa claimed seventh for Williams and Fernando Alonso was eighth in the McLaren.
Force India’s Sergio Pérez was in ninth and Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg took the final championship point in 10th.
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:31:26.262 | 25 | |
| 2 | +2.762s | 18 | |
| 3 | +4.600s | 15 | |
| 4 | +5.468s | 12 | |
| 5 | +32.940s | 10 | |
| 6 | +48.691s | 8 | |
| 7 | +68.882s | 6 | |
| 8 | +69.363s | 4 | |
| 9 | +69.500s | 2 | |
| 10 | +1 lap | 1 | |
| 11 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 12 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 13 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 15 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| 16 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 |