Verstappen “took one for the team” as Ricciardo rues Turn 1

Ricciardo beat Verstappen via an alternate tyre strategy, in which he unleashed superior pace on supersofts in the final two stints to first pass and then stay ahead of his teammate.

They both led home the pole-sitting Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, and hit their pre-race target of beating both Ferraris too.

“I definitely think I took one for the team today,” said Verstappen of his tyre strategy that led him to allow Ricciardo to pass him. “But that’s alright.

“I think Daniel and I have a good relationship so we can do that. The most important thing was for us to be in front of Ferrari. That definitely worked today and we were even challenging Mercedes. We kept Nico behind us on fair pace, so that was good.

“You have to earn that trust as well, 'cause I’m quite new still. For the team it was a very positive day.”

Ricciardo “disappointed” over Turn 1

Ricciardo finished seven seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton, but regretted his first corner approach that allowed Verstappen to nip ahead of him into second place.

“Very happy with the end result,” said Ricciardo. “The first few seconds off the start I was very happy, I could see Nico didn’t get a good run so I was immediately up to second.

“Then, a few seconds later, Max went around the outside of me. I was, er, to be honest, quite disappointed with myself letting that happen. He did what he had to do.

“I honestly didn’t think he’d have the grip on the outside, so I thought if I held it tight I’d get a much better exit. Didn’t happen.

"You make mistakes once, don’t let them happen again – I’ll learn from that. Credit to him for trying it, he pulled it off. It was tight, it was close, but we got through and finished on the podium. We’ll leave it at that!

“Keeping Nico behind in the opening laps was quite important. On the supersoft for the last two stints, that’s where we had true pace. Once the fuel came down, the balance came to me and it switched the tyre on.”