Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel hits Lewis Hamilton as Daniel Ricciardo squeezes through to win dramatic race

Valtteri Bottas finished second with Lance Stroll completing the podium

Ricciardo took advantage of Hamilton and Vettel's problems with each other (Getty)

Three-time world champion Niki Lauda was in no doubt about the tactics which saw points leader Sebastian Vettel collide deliberately with arch-rival Lewis Hamilton in an Azerbaijan GP which was described as “crazy”, by both the winner Daniel Ricciardo and runner-up Valtteri Bottas, who had each recovered from early dramas to benefit when the two leading protagonists hit trouble.

The incident between Hamilton and Vettel occurred under the safety car on the 20th lap, when Hamilton exited Turn 16 slower than Vettel expected while preparing for the restart. The German ran into the back of the Englishman then, believing he had been brake-tested – Mercedes’ telemetry proved otherwise – drove alongside before deliberately steering his car into heavy contact with the side of the Mercedes.

“First of all, when you hit somebody up the arse it’s your fault, no question,” Lauda said trenchantly. “But to drive alongside you and hit you… I’ve never seen anything like this. I asked Lewis did he drive into you or was it an accident? He said it was deliberate. To do that, I don’t understand because Vettel is a decent guy, normally. Crazy! He has tarnished his reputation for sure. It’s strange, he was freaked out in himself.”

Hamilton, who lost the race not because of the incident but because his headrest later worked loose, requiring an extra pit stop on the 31st which dropped him from the lead to eighth place before he recovered to fifth, two-tenths behind Vettel, said the move was “disrespectful.” And that the 10s stop and go penalty which Vettel was required to take on the 33rd lap, dropping him from the lead to seventh and an eventual fourth place finish, was insufficient.

“He literally just came alongside and hit me,” he said. “It definitely sets a precedent, I think, within F1 and it also does for all the young kids that are watching us drive and conduct ourselves. We are supposed to be the best drivers in the world, and they see today a four-time champion behave like that. This is what you see in karting, not Formula 1.

“I didn’t brake test him, as he thought, I was controlling the pace as I was entitled to. Like all the other restarts, I slowed down in the same spot. He was obviously sleeping and drove into the back of me. That wasn't, for me, an issue. But driving alongside and deliberately driving into another driver and getting away pretty much scot-free as he still came fourth, I think that's a disgrace. I think he disgraced himself today."

Told that Vettel had suggested that F1 is a sport for men, he retorted: "If he wants to prove that he's a man, I think we should do it out of the car, face-to-face.

"Imagine all the young kids that are watching Formula 1 today and see that kind of behaviour from a four-time world champion. I think that says it all."

Vettel was unrepentant. "It was quite obvious. I didn't run into the back of him on purpose," he said. "I damaged my wing. He did something similar a couple of years ago in China at a restart. It's just not the way to do it. In the end, we're racing as men. I don't have a radio to him. I think if I get a penalty then we should both get a penalty."

Bottas (left), Ricciardo (centre right) and Stroll (right) celebrate on the podium (Getty)

It had to happen sometime that their entente cordiale would be fractured, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who admits to being a friend of Vettel’s, said that he would rather see “warriors” battling than smooching. “I think they both have somebody to smooch with,” he said. “I think what we saw today was the limitation to their respect.”

The argument was but one of many in an incident-filled race interrupted by three safety car deployments.

The first cleared away Daniil Kvyat’s broken Toro Rosso. The second cleared up debris after the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon collided soon after the restart. And the third eventually led to the race being red flagged for 23 minutes while that job was done properly.

The deployments hurt the race leaders, and created the situation between them, but also threw crucial lifelines to Ricciardo, who had to make an unplanned pit stop on the fifth lap to have debris cleared from his brakes, and Bottas, who had collided in the second corner with fellow countryman Kimi Raikkonen, and also made an unplanned stop on the first lap to have a punctured tyre replaced. They fell to 18th and 20th places respectively, but were able to regain ground as the safety cars closed the field up.

Lance Stroll does a 'shoey' in honour of his Australian rival Ricciardo (Getty)

On the final restart Ricciardo had climbed as high as fifth behind Hamilton, Vettel and the two Williams cars of rookie Lance Stroll and veteran Felipe Massa, and pounced on the latter pair in one spectacular move going into the first corner, to run third and set himself up to inherit the lead when Hamilton pitted for his headrest to be replaced and Vettel served his penalty.

Massa would then fade with a broken damper, which helped Bottas to climb to third in the closing stages before steadily hunting down Stroll. He finally snatched second place from the valiant rookie Stroll by a tenth of a second, literally on the finish line. The young Canadian nevertheless remained the youngest driver ever to stand on an F1 podium.

“Do I believe that I could win it from 19th?” Ricciardo said, trademark grin firmly in place. “Not really. We knew the podium was a possibility after the restart, then I heard about the problems of Lewis and Seb, but it was a crazy race, with my unplanned pit stop. This is the race we expected last year, but we got it this year instead. Obviously the mistake I made yesterday was disappointing” – he crashed in qualifying – “but I knew today it would be a different outcome. I just tried to stay out of trouble and it certainly paid off. It’s nice to bring it home on the top step.

“But honestly? I’m speechless. On the cool-down lap I was giggling like a schoolboy.”

Hamilton and Vettel, meanwhile, most definitely weren’t.