Ricciardo: We had a good car for second

Ricciardo and Rosberg were locked in battle for second place behind Lewis Hamilton, after a fast-starting Ricciardo bolted away from Rosberg on the supersoft tyres in the first stint.

Their strategies were set to converge in the closing stages, when Rosberg, needing to stop, would have had a tyre advantage, but Ricciardo would have held track advantage.

But in the end it never happened, the Virtual Safety Car caused by Max Verstappen parking his broken Red Bull effectively leaving his teammate exposed.

Rosberg was able to take a free stop, helping him to second place and resigning Ricciardo to third.

Following the race, Red Bull boss Christian Horner played down the role the VSC played in the result, saying "we would have had track position, but Rosberg would have run a set of soft tyres, so he'd have been on a quicker tyre. We'd have given it a go, but you'd have to say the advantage would have been with Rosberg."

Ricciardo, however, was confident that he could have held on to second had it not been for the VSC.

"It was definitely ours, at least for that moment," he said, "and even if Nico caught me towards the end I was not going down without a fight.

"So, you know, I was looking forward to the battle. I think we had good pace. It was frustrating at the time; as soon as the Virtual Safety Car came out I got on the radio and said 'this isn't good for us, is it'. Simon, my engineer, said ' no, it's going to have us over'. I was pretty upset, but that's how it goes.

"We had, I think, relatively good pace compared to Nico. I think we had a pretty good car for second. Shame we didn't get that, but hey, I'm not going to get too disappointed. It's just cool to be on the podium here.

"It's frustrating, but I still enjoyed the day. The anthem before the race is pretty awesome, I had goosebumps, I'm not gonna lie. And then the podium and everything afterwards, I love coming here."