Red Bull's hopes heading to Canada for the 2014 grand prix were not exactly high.
At a pure power circuit, Mercedes was expected to run and hide, as it had done in the first six races of the new turbo hybrid era, scoring all six wins, and five one-twos. By the time the paddock rocked up in Montreal, only 18 points had been dropped by Mercedes, after Lewis Hamilton retired in the Australian opener due to a spark plug issue.
Qualifying appeared to be going to the form-book as Nico Rosberg took pole ahead of Hamilton, with the pair 0.6s faster than third-placed Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion.
Ricciardo was sixth, but only 0.041s slower than Vettel in third, with the two Williams the filling in the Red Bull sandwich.
For the first 25 laps, it was as you were at the front, until Rosberg cut across the final chicane under pressure from Hamilton, with Hamilton reporting shortly afterwards a loss of power.
He pitted on Lap 45, and actually emerged ahead of Rosberg, but ran wide under braking for the hairpin, with smoke pouring from the right-rear brakes.
But the same problem had also hit Rosberg, who was slowing to try and make the end.
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The situation was this.
Rosberg's wounded Mercedes was leading but was far slower than the chasing pack, led by Sergio Perez in second, Ricciardo in third, Vettel in fourth, and Felipe Massa fifth.
Whilst they carved chunks out of Rosberg, Ricciardo could not pass Perez, and for a while, it appeared Rosberg would steal an unlikely victory.
But at Turn 1 on Lap 66, with five to go, Ricciardo finally muscled past the Mexican, and set off in pursuit of Rosberg.
Two laps later, on Lap 68/70, the Australian used DRS to power past Rosberg into the final chicane, leading for the first time in his F1 career.
He soon disappeared as attention turned to who would finish P3.
Vettel got past on Lap 69 to lead Perez, with Massa getting a run onto the pit-straight on the Force India.
Then it happened.
As they rounded the slight right kink in the pit-straight, Perez opened the steering to slightly straighten up, but this jink left took him directly into Massa's Williams, sending both into the barrier at high speed.
The safety car was deployed after the heavy impact, with Vettel doing extremely well to avoid the out-of-control Williams from swiping him out.
After being taken to hospital, the pair was released, with Massa furious at Perez's actions.
Force India tried to argue the toss, but Perez was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for the next race, in Austria.
But it was of no concern for Ricciardo.
He became the first Australian since Alan Jones in 1980 to win in Canada, and take the first of his eight grand prix victories.
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