Italian Open: Daniel Ricciardo Wins, As Hamilton And Verstappen Crash Out

 

Daniel Ricciardo won his first Grand Prix victory for McLaren at the Italian Open following a ghastly crash at Turn 2 between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. 

It was the Australian's first victory win of the season, extending his career total to seventh. Nevertheless, he started well from the start in P2 and quickly overtook Valterri Bottas who started in pole. He finished quickest in 1:21:54.365s, trailed by Lando Norris and Valter Bottas in second and third position respectively. 

Ecstatic to make the podium top spot once again, the Aussie sent a strong warning to his rivals that "For anyone who thought I left, I never left. Thanks guys."

The dramatic start saw Ricciardo pacing past the pole setter, Valtteri Bottas while Hamilton was in a race battle to pass Lando Norris to move up to the second position behind Verstappen. 

While Ricciardo remained unhindered by Verstappen's fight to get into the lead, Hamilton raced past leaving the Ducth's Red Bull running over the kerb and eventually collided with Briton  and they both crashed out of the race. 

Hamilton and Verstappen have different options as to what caused their crash but the Red Bull driver, who was later penalised believed it was his rival for "squeezing" him into the corner like he did in Silverstone. 

"I went around the outside and he kept on squeezing me. I just wanted to ra race," said Verstappen. "People will start to talk about Silverstone but I didn't expect him to keep on squeezing and squeezing because we s would've had a car's width of turn two."