Daniel Ricciardo made it three fourth-place finishes in a row in China - and claimed that his performance was as good as any in his F1 career to date.
Ricciardo jumped past Nico Rosberg to take the lead on the first lap, only to suffer a puncture early on the third lap. He was 17th when the race resumed after the safety car period.
“A missed opportunity, but nothing was in our hands,” he said. “I took every opportunity I could out there, and I was just unlucky. I was leading and got a puncture. Obviously Rosberg had the strategy in his favor, so I think we would have finished second today. I won't say we would have won, because Rosberg was too strong, but second was there.
“Forgetting the unlucky part I think the race was 10 out of 10 from my side. I recovered, I got my head down, the team executed good pit stops, we got out on track when we needed to, and pushed through the traffic.
“Overall, I'm super happy with my race. It was probably the equal best race of my career. I couldn't do anything else. I knew I could get the start, I did, and I was doing everything I could. The way I came through the field at the end was awesome, I don't feel I left anything on the table. It hurts to have probably your best race and knowing you didn't get the champagne, but that's just racing. It's just unlucky. Beyond that, the team did an awesome job this weekend. We're fast, we've gone to three different tracks now, and we're there. We're not on Mercedes' pace yet, but we're not far off.”
Ricciardo said the Red Bull team has got its mojo back after a disappointing 2015.
“We've built on getting that back, the second half of last year. The team really turned tit around, and that was really refreshing to see. This year we've started off on an even better footing. Definitely the vibe is somewhat like '14, and it feels good.
“We're getting there. We're definitely closing in, and if we keep closing in at this rate it's going to be a pretty spicy rest of the year. I'm ready, and obviously I proved that today. When the opportunity arises, we'll take it.”
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