Ricciardo thought he could win in Bahrain

Daniel Ricciardo drove his Red Bull to fifth place in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, but he showed consistency throughout the race to the extent that he initially believed he had a chance to take victory.

He began the Grand Prix finding himself in fifth, behind his team-mate Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and early leader Valtteri Bottas, but after a pit stop during a Safety Car period the Australian found he could not get enough heat into his new Soft tyres - and this subsequently hurt his pace as he dropped rapidly from third to sixth.

"I genuinely thought we had a chance to win," Ricciardo explained later. "That first stint was looking really competitive. I could see that Valtteri was struggling, I believe he had some issues with the tyres or whatever. I was at the end of that train, I could see everyone else, they were sliding around. I was looking after my tyres, so we were in a really good position.

"Then the Safety Car came out, we put the Softs on and that tyre was just not happening for us today. On the restart, out of the last corner, it felt like the tyre just wasn't switched on. Basically the whole first I was sliding, so that's why I went back. Beyond that the tyre never really came good, I was on Massa's pace and we know we're quicker than that, so it was a strange chain of events from the beginning of the race."

Mason Hawker