Red Bull strategy jumps Ricciardo to third at Verstappen's expense

Daniel Ricciardo turned frustration into satisfaction when he jumped up from fifth to third in Monaco.

A disappointing qualifying session had seen the 2016 pole man start fifth, and he maintained that position in the first part of the race, behind Valtteri Bottas and teammate Max Verstappen. With a two against one scenario Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen first, which prompted a response on the next lap from Bottas.

Ricciardo then stayed out for another five laps, and with some very quick laps he did enough to get ahead of both of his rivals when he emerged from the pits. Verstappen made it clear that he wasn’t happy with what had transpired.

“I’m really pleased to be up here,” said the Australian. “You don’t often start fifth and get a podium here. It’s hard to make any positions. I was just frustrated yesterday, because I knew we had so much more to offer here, so much more to give than what we showed. I felt like I didn’t really also get to show my pace around here. It was how the pit stops worked, the two cars pitting before me and that allowing me to show a bit more my pace.

“That was perfect and we got into a really good rhythm, I think we were doing 16 dead, 16 dead and at the time I think that pace was really strong and I was able to do a good overcut. It was a good combination of obviously the lap times coming from me and the team leaving me out there and allowing me to run in clean air. That was fun. That definitely made my race.”

Ricciardo had a fright after the late safety car restart when he ran wide at Turn One and hit the barrier, fortunately without any consequences.

“The Safety Car nearly ruined my race. At the restart I hit the wall in Turn 1. I hit it pretty hard, so I thought I had damage. I knew Valtteri was kind of there, in my blind spot but I just managed to hold on at the restart and then I was quite happy to see the checkered because the tires after restarts are so tricky to get going.

“Today I felt like, particularly that point of the race where we had clear track and were able to show our speed, I felt that was more representative of what we could have probably done yesterday. It was nice to at least show something this weekend and now at least get a podium for it.”