Ricciardo Wins Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton said that he was ready to fight Sebastian Vettel after the German's "disgraceful" and "disrespectful" driving led to the championship rivals colliding in a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix yesterday.

Vettel was given a 10-second stop go penalty for unsafe driving but emerged ahead of Hamilton, where he would stay until they crossed the line fourth and fifth at the end of the race.

With the safety auto - which was out on track for a third time following a series of incidents in a frenetic opening to the Baku race - set to pull back into the pit lane, Vettel crashed into the back of Hamilton at the exit of Turn 16.

Mercedes driver Hamilton, who won in Canada last time out and started on pole, was seemingly on course to pick up a comfortable victory and make further inroads into Vettel's championship advantage after maintaining his lead following a red flag. An irate Vettel then accelerated alongside Hamilton, gesticulated and moved his auto to the right and into him.

"So yeah, just went over the kerb, bottomed out, the auto jumped and hit him and I got a puncture".

Despite Vettel's time penalty, Hamilton lost valuable time of his own - and possibly the race - changing a loose headrest.

"I don't know really, I need to have a bit more [of a] look at the videos and stuff and review it a bit more but for me it was no option to back off". Just lost out to Valtteri in the end. It's an awesome feeling and, for me, a dream come true.

The race started at 5 p.m. local time with track temperatures at 53 degrees Celsius (127 Fahrenheit).

Hamilton got away cleanly, but Raikkonen clipped Bottas and bumped his own Ferrari into the wall, and Vettel surged past them into second place.

Up ahead, Hamilton asked over the radio where Bottas was, perhaps concerned his teammate would not be able to protect him from Vettel later in the race.

By then, after a great scrap with Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen was also forced to retire with an engine failure, his fourth retirement in six outings in his Red Bull.

At about the same time, the safety vehicle came out for the first time because Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso was stalled on the side of the track. "We're at that point in the season where, give it another couple of races, we'll get closer and closer". "I got hit at Turn 2 and there was quite a lot of damage on the vehicle already on the left-hand side".

But all the talk was about the Hamilton-Vettel incident with the Austrian GP next.

Ten teams, two drivers in each, competed on the 6-kilometer Baku City Circuit.

Ricciardo won what will be regarded as a race for the ages following three safety auto periods, one red flag and a series of notable incidents.

In a rare bright spot for McLaren, Fernando Alonso placed ninth for his team's first points of a frustrating season.