Gutted Ricciardo “happy to move on” from disastrous home GP

After crashing out in qualifying, Ricciardo's rebuilt car ground to a halt on the out-lap from the pits with a gearbox sensor failure that required him to be towed back to the pits.

He joined the race two laps down, before a power unit issue stranded him out on track.

"On the plus side, I'm getting out of here – it's been a long week," said Ricciardo. "Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but I feel bad for everyone, bad for the fans obviously – I believe there's more people here supporting me than the others.

"It just kinda snowballed from yesterday. The five[-place] grid penalty sounded bad enough but we had other issues.

"We were laps down, but getting some information – it was valuable track time.

"At the end we believe it was something to do with fuel pressure – basically it just switched off. It was just instant, there was no procedure I could do to stay out there.

"Happy to move on. I'm disappointed today, but I'll be ready tomorrow to go for China."

Verstappen content with fifth

Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was far happier with his fortunes, and was delighted to play a key role in the outcome of the lead fight – when he was able to hold off Lewis Hamilton in his first stint – and keep Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in sight throughout.

"I was still a bit surprised I was that close to Kimi," said Verstappen. "Pace was quite good compared to him, and behind me there was not much pressure.

"The car behaved quite a bit better in the race than qualifying. We still need to improve, and we will, so we'll see in the next few races."