MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo the star, but no cigar

Daniel Ricciardo was the driver of the day at the Hungarian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton stretched his Formula 1 World Championship lead over Sebastian Vettel to 24 points.

Having been 12th on the grid after a crazy, rain-disrupted qualifying and lost four places at the start, Ricciardo again demonstrated his overtaking brilliance to finish fourth behind Hamilton’s Mercedes and the Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

But the carsales.com.au global ambassador was “beaten around” in the process, his red Bull RB14 copping a buffeting from the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and Force India of Esteban Ocon at the start and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas late in the race.

However, Ricciardo set the fastest lap and was voted driver of the day on Formula1.com, ahead of Vettel and Hamilton, while Pierre Gasly in a Honda-powered Toro Rosso and Fernando Alonso in a Renault-powered McLaren were other stars in sixth and eighth places.

Red Bull Racing was furious after Max Verstappen dropped out after just five laps with a failure in his Renault power unit, prompting an expletive-laden outburst from the Dutch youngster over the radio and a scathing attack from RBR team principal Christian Horner.

The teams now have a two-day test at the same Hungaroring circuit tomorrow and Wednesday before the mid-season break until the Belgian GP at Spa on August 24-26.

Ricciardo was pleased to finish on “a high” in last night’s race after retiring from two of the previous three GPs.

His only two podiums this year have been his wins in Shanghai and Monaco, but he said after last night’s Budapest race: “It's nice to get a good one today.

“The start was hectic. I got beaten around a little bit and then we managed to find our way through, so that was fun. With Valtteri as well, but got him at the last lap so that felt better.

“The first few laps were not really fun. I was getting a little bit hit around at turn one.

“I think it was Ocon. Went to pass on the outside of turn six but was never going to make it, he then cut the chicane and stayed in front of me for two laps.

“That was frustrating, I was on the radio saying he was basically killing my race because he shouldn’t be in front.

“I thought about cutting the chicane myself and getting back in front of him.

“Eventually he let me pass, and we could set a rhythm.

“Once we set a rhythm, it was fun.

“The battle with Valtteri, I wouldn’t call it that fun though.

“I felt a bit of a knock on the inside, but passing him back felt good.

“I feel I did all I could, I gave him enough room. I guess with the damage (Bottas already had from contact with Vettel), he went in pretty hot.

“Definitely over the top, but I wanted to still get him back on track as opposed to wait for a penalty.”

Mercedes instructed Bottas to let Ricciardo regain the place he had lost. The Finn was given a 10-second post-race penalty too, but it didn’t cost him fifth place. He was much more upset at being called “a sensational wingman” for Hamilton by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

After 12 of 21 races, Ricciardo remains fifth in the championship on 118 points – 14 behind Bottas but now 13 ahead of Verstappen. Hamilton has 213 points, Vettel 189 and Raikkonen 146.

Mercedes leads the constructors’ championship with 345 points to Ferrari’s 335, with Red Bull on 223 and then Renault’s factory team a distant fourth on 82.

Red Bull likely will face penalties for changes that will be needed to Verstappen’s Renault power unit in Belgium, the GP closest to his home and with even bigger numbers of his fans in orange sure to be there.

Team boss Horner said of the Hungaroring failure: “I suppose no surprise really. Sometimes words betray you. Cruel luck for Max.

“We pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines and for first-class, or state-of-the-art, product and you can see it’s quite clearly some way below that.”

Horner said he would let Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul “come up with the excuses afterwards”.

The French manufacturer may just have a surprise response for Red Bull.

Michael Schumacher’s 19-year-old son, Mick, has scored his first win in the European Formula 3 Championship.

Schumacher started sixth on the grid at Spa, where his father so famously made his F1 debut with the Jordan team 26 years ago before going on to a record 91 GP wins and seven world titles.

Ferrari-backed New Zealander Marcus Armstrong has had seven podiums in the F3 series this season and leads it by a point from British driver Daniel Ticktum.

Australia’s Indianapolis 500 victor Will Power was third in today’s IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio, narrowing the big gap between him and series leader Scott Dixon.

However, New Zealander Dixon – already the most successful IndyCar racer behind retired AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti – remains on course for a fifth title with four races remaining.

Dixon was fifth in today’s race won by American Alexander Rossi ahead of Canadian Robert Wickens. One of Power’s Penske teammates, American reigning series champion Josef Newgarden was sandwiched between the Aussie and the Kiwi at the chequered flag.

Neither of the top two makes in the World Rally Championship – Hyundai and Ford -- featured on the podium at the weekend’s Rally Finland.

Estonian Ott Tanak won in a Toyota Yaris for the second time this season, with Norwegian Mads Ostberg in a Citroen C3 holding on to second ahead of Finn Jari-Matti Latvala in another Toyota.

New Zealander Hayden Paddon was leading manufacturer Hyundai’s best performer in fourth, while its drivers’ championship leader, Belgian Thierry Neuville, and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen were only ninth and 10th in their i20s.

“Road position really dictated a lot,” Neuville said.

“Even without our mistake on Friday, when we misread a pace note, I don’t think we would have been any higher up the classification.”

Neuville’s main challenger, the world champion of the past five years, Frenchman Sebastian Ogier, was fifth after struggling with a new aerodynamic package and shock absorbers on his Ford Fiesta.
Ogier trimmed Neuville’s lead to 21 points (153-132) after eight of 13 rounds, with Tanak third on 107. In the manufacturers’ championship, Hyundai has 228 points to M-Sport Ford’s 202, with Toyota closing on 201 and Citroen with 153.

In the Australian Rally Championship, Eli Evans in a Skoda Fabia R5 extended his lead to 51 points (290-239) over Steve Glenney in an ageing Subaru Impreza WRX STi at the new event in and around Launceston, Tasmania.

Evans won the first heat but was second to Glenney in Sunday’s second leg after losing a lot of time on the first stage of the day.

Younger Harry Bates (Toyota Yaris) and Molly Taylor (Subaru) are third and fourth, on 206 and 200 points respectively, after four of the six rounds.

Meantime, Australia’s international rally and rallycross star Chris Atkinson will have Canada’s 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve as a Subaru teammate at next weekend’s third round of the new Americas Rallycross Championship at Trois-Rivieres in Quebec.