Daniel Ricciardo suffers nightmare Australian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo has suffered a nightmare start to his Renault career at the Australian Grand Prix, forced to retire just over halfway through the race.

The home hero lost his front wing just seconds after the lights went out in Melbourne.

Ricciardo ran to the right of the track in an attempt to pass Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

But as he came off the grass, his front wing was thrown underneath the car.

“I think Daniel will be a little bit shocked by that,” Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle said.

“It wasn’t really a touch and it was only just off the road, but it’s literally ripped his front wing off.”

Brundle added: “He’s very unlucky with that. He was barely off the road.”

Ricciardo somehow managed to brake in time to avoid causing a monster pile-up at the first turn.

He was sent straight to the back of the field and limped to the pits to be fitted with a new wing.

Having earlier reported damage to his right-hand side and failing to make up ground after his pit stop, Ricciardo was retired on lap 31 of 58.

It is the third time the Aussie has retired from his home race in his Formula One career after DNFs in 2013 with Toro Rosso and 2017 with Red Bull.

Onboard footage showed the moment Ricciardo lost his wing.

His right-front tyre appeared to bounce on a slice of bitumen between two patches of grass, later expressing surprise at how the ‘random’ piece of ruined his race.

The seven-time race winner was immediately a minute off the pace of leader Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas had overhauled reigning champion and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at the start, going on to win what he termed the ‘race of his life’.

Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz was the first driver to retire after the Renault engine in the back of his McLaren blew up in a fiery blaze.

He escaped unharmed before marshals arrived to put out the flames.