Ricciardo undergoes lip surgery after Chinese GP

Daniel Ricciardo has undergone minor surgery to insert stiches into his lip after suffering an infection while in Bahrain.

The Red Bull Racing driver confirmed he had stiches in his lip after picking up an infection between the Bahrain and China race weekends which continued to cause him discomfort. The Australian driver was still able to power to victory in Shanghai despite the lip injury, charging through the front-runners on fresher tyres after the safety car period, but has undergone minor surgery to fix the issue.

“I had this weird thing with my lip in Bahrain where I bit it, and it must have got infected or something because I kept biting it over and over,” Ricciardo wrote in his Red Bull column. “I had to get that taken out and stitched back up in London.

“I got back to Monaco last Friday, where I could finally put my feet up. It's a good job we didn't have to race last weekend, and that Azerbaijan wasn't a back-to-back with China. I was knackered, had some stitches in and pretty much cooked as far as energy goes.”

Ricciardo concedes the back-to-back races in Bahrain and China were physically draining on him, heightened by the post-victory celebrations from Shanghai, but is feeling fresh ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix where he claimed another dramatic win last year.

“It took me five days to get back to Monaco after winning in Shanghai, and it seriously felt like I was on the go for all five,” he said. “I wish I had some decent stories of crazy three-day parties and that sort of thing to share with you, but it was about as uneventful as celebrations get.

“I was on multiple flights connecting the night after the race, went straight into the Red Bull Racing factory at Milton Keynes, had time in the simulator, and then I had to get some minor surgery.”