15/04/2018
NEWS STORY
With his infectious grin and cheeky wit, it is rare to see Daniel Ricciardo looking miserable.
Retiring on the first lap in Bahrain however, and suffering a turbo failure in FP3 a week later, aware that anytime soon he will start serving grid penalties, left the popular Australian looking untypically dejected.
Indeed, in recent weeks the negativity has crept into his vocabulary, Hamilton's qualifying pace in Melbourne leaving the Red Bull driver like he'd been "punched in the stomach" and had a pie thrown in his face, while that retirement in Bahrain had him admitting that "this sport can rip your heart out, it's brutal sometimes".
It wasn't looking much better come Saturday morning in China, the Australian pulling to the side of the track with smoke billowing from the back of his car. Though it looked like he would miss qualifying - his cause not helped by the fact that his spare engine hadn't been fully built - sterling work by his crew got him out just in time to do one flying lap in Q1. You know the rest.
At the end of a Chinese Grand Prix that for once really did live up to all the hype, nobody, but nobody could begrudge Ricciardo his moment, and though for a while it looked like emotion might get the better of him, he held it all together and eventually admitted that days like this were worth 50 Bahrains.
"It was awesome," he told reporters. "We really thought we were going to start the race from the back, just over 24 hours later to be here now… this sport's crazy.
"A week ago I was with my head down after two laps," he continued. "Frustrated at the sport, frustrated at all the variables that are involved in the sport. Sometimes I questioned why I chose this sport because there are so many other things outside your control.
"It does get you down a lot," he admitted. "But when you have a day like this it's worth 50 of those bad ones."
"I've only got six," he said, referring to his win tally, "but they seem to come under always some circumstances.
"We didn't think we'd get out for qualifying, but the team were rewarded for getting out. This is the best reward possible. I'm super happy for the mechanics."
While team boss Christian Horner has put the crew's effort down to "team work", surely there can be no denying that the crew were just that little bit extra motivated by the fact they were doing it for one the sport's true nice guys.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai, here.