Sebastian Vettel moment of madness helps Daniel Ricciardo to shock win

Without Sebastian Vettel's moment of madness, Daniel Ricciardo's three-car overtake in the 2017 Azerbaijan GP probably would have faded into F1's history as a case of "remember when?"

By Lap 19 of the 51 tour affair, nine laps had been completed under the safety car, Ricciardo had pitted with technical problems, and Max Verstappen's Renault power unit had cried enough and failed.

As the field prepared to resume racing, Lewis Hamilton, as race leader, slowed down to control the safety car restart, doing so exiting Turn 15, the fast-downhill left-hander.

But as he did so, Vettel, close behind, was caught out and hit the back of the Mercedes, and in a fit of rage at believing Hamilton had brake-tested his world championship rival, Vettel drew alongside and rammed, at slow speed, into a bemused Hamilton. 

More chaos was to swiftly follow on the immediate restart with the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon colliding at Turn 2, with the debris enough for a red flag to be thrown, the cars pitting at the end of Lap 22. 

It was here that the race went truly wild

Baku chaos

Vettel was handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for "dangerous driving", the most severe in-race penalty F1 stewards can hand out short of disqualification as the field prepared for the restart, with Hamilton retaining his lead from Vettel. 

On this restart, Ricciardo pulled off his famous move. 

As Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa battled over third, Ricciardo simply sent it down the inside and braked as late as he dared, and stole ahead of the trio. 

It would prove to be the race-deciding overtake.

Shortly afterwards, Vettel served his penalty as incredible drama hit Hamilton, whose headrest had not been properly re-attached after the red flag and came loose.

He tried to slot it back into place, but was told by the FIA to pit to fix it, eliminating him from contention as Ricciardo moved into the pound seat. It was not a chance he would give up, coming from 10th on the grid after a Q3 crash and last in the race to score his sole victory of the season.

Vettel, despite his penalty, actually extended his points lead over Hamilton to 14, the duo finishing fourth and fifth as Valtteri Bottas, himself last at one point, stormed back and stole second, literally on the line, from Stroll, who claimed a maiden F1 podium. 

It was one of those races that most of the 20 drivers would have felt they had a shot at winning, but it was Ricciardo who emerged from the chaos.