Gutsy Ricciardo grabs another podium finish

DANIEL Ricciardo last night snapped a brilliant third-place victory behind the two duelling Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at the Monaco Grand Prix.

EVER-CONSISTENT Daniel Ricciardo last night snapped a brilliant third-place victory behind the two duelling Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at a drama-filled Monaco Grand Prix.

Ricciardo was on the bumper of Hamilton, winner of the past four races this season, for the final five laps but couldn’t overtake him on the narrow circuit.

Hamilton had complained to his team on the official radio that he was having problems with dirt in his eye. Rosberg, at this time, was more than eight seconds down the road , having led the race from pole to finish. Rosberg grew up in Monaco as the son of racing driver Keke Rosberg and won the same race last year.

“Yes,’’ Rosberg exclaimed as he crossed the line. ‘’This was amazing.”

Rosberg and Hamilton were sternly warned by taciturn Mercedes boss Niki Lauder to cool their feud, which was sparked by some perceived gamesmanship in qualifying and the two F1 leaders complied with largely textbook racing around the tight streets of Monte Carlo.

Hamilton’s second placing means he has lost his championship lead to Rosberg. He was clearly frustrated throughout the 78 laps, including berating the team officials for not pulling him quickly into the pits for a tyre change during a mid-race safety-car delay.

But Ricciardo, 24, might have considered himself lucky with the podium finish.

He had started on the grid in third spot but had a poor start and was immediately overhauled by both his Red Bull teammate and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. It was only misfortune to both drivers that enabled Ricciardo to claim his second official podium spot this year (after his Melbourne result was nullified).

Vettel was the first to retire after problems with his gearbox on lap five, and then Raikkonen had to double pit while the safety car was attending to the fallout of a spectacular crash of Saubre’s Andrian Sutil when he emerged from the famous Monaco tunnel.

Stewards were kept busy dealing with incidents at the back of the field.