Ricciardo recalls first victory: "I thought: 'F*cking hell,I'm sending it'"

Ahead of his final race with Red Bull Racing before he leaves for Renault, Daniel Ricciardo has recalled the day when he won his first-ever Grand Prix in Canada, back in 2014.

Since that win in Montréal, Ricciardo has won six more races (so seven in total). His first season with Red Bull in 2014 was arguably his best one. He won three races, two of which back-to-back in Hungary and in Belgium. He actually was the only non-Mercedes driver that year to have won a race. And you thought Mercedes were dominant this year.

"I was in fourth behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both driving for Mercedes, and Sergio Perez in a Force India," Ricciardo wrote in his article on The Players' Tribune.

"We had nearly finished the lap, and I saw Lewis limping his car back to the pits — he was out of the race with a brake issue. I’m thinking, 'alright, alright, alright, that’s a podium'. Then, after a couple more laps, a few turns ahead of Sergio … there he was … Nico. I knew he must be having the same issue Lewis had.

"I hadn’t won a race in Formula One yet. This was my chance, but I was going to have to get past Sergio. The problem was that his Force India was quick in a straight line, and there are a lot of straights in Montreal.

"With six laps to go I could see Sergio was braking a bit earlier into corners — he was nursing a problem. We crossed the start-finish line one more time, and I was just like, 'f***ing hell, I’m sending it here'.

"I went around the outside into Turn 1. I knew that even if I spun, or couldn’t pull it off, I had to go for it... I had to try. For an instant, I thought I had gone too deep. I dipped two tires on the grass, nearly lost it, but brought it back and made it stick! P2."

"His issue was getting worse and worse, and with two laps to go, I caught him and passed him down the back straight. And that’s when it hit me: 'Holy s***, you’re in the lead'.

"I just wanted my hands to keep working. I was trying so hard to stay calm and remember how to shift, how to brake, how to drive an F1 car. I was begging my body to keep it together. And finally, I crossed the line one last time, looked up to my left and saw the checkered flag. It was the prettiest flag I’d ever seen."

A great insight of what was going through the Honey Badger's mind when he got his maiden win. And good writing for him too! He could always go and do that if the whole racing thing doesn't work out for him... but with seven wins in Formula 1, we think he's doing alright for himself.

Next season, Ricciardo will team up with Nico Hülkenberg at Renault, forcing Carlos Sainz out of the team as the Spaniard will go to McLaren to replace the retiring Fernando Alonso. Pierre Gasly, in his turn, will take the Aussie's place at Red Bull.