Sporting Ricciardo can live with third but Vettel could have taken one for the team

THE Red Bull boss did not issue an order for the German to yield.

Sebastian Vettel leads his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.

DANIEL Ricciardo refused to criticise his Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel for compromising his world championship prospects by denying him a more prominent piece of real estate on the podium at the Singapore Grand Prix.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Ricciardo told The Australian after trailing Mercedes-Benz’s Lewis Hamilton and Vettel to the ­chequered flag at Marina Bay. “We raced to the finish. That’s the way it should be. I nearly got him. If there was a gap for me to get past him, I would have tried to take it.

“There were no orders for me not to, put it that way.

“But I couldn’t get through and it was complicated because (Ferrari’s Fernando) Alonso was right behind me.

“I can live with third. I’m not going to get greedy because the car had issues and I was concerned we might not get to the flag. Power was dropping in and out.

“There was a lot going on so the podium isn’t a bad result.”

Twenty-three corners on the final lap. Ricciardo received no good turns.

Vettel could have taken one for the team. Not in this lifetime. Ricciardo’s frustration at finishing third was tempered by relief that he finished their street fight at all.

His ride nearly conked out down near the Fullerton Hotel before he nursed home his understrength engine to be just 7/10ths of a second behind Vettel.

Every rankings point will count this year. Ricciardo made inroads on the Silver Arrows. He trails Hamilton by 60 points. It would have been 57 points if Vettel let him through.

“It’s a tough one,” the German said. “I had a lot of pressure from Daniel but I’m glad to make it on to the podium.

“Second was the best we could do as a team. There was no point in fighting Lewis. Imagine you drive a Fiat Panda and there’s a 911 ­Porsche in front of you.

“You can try, but it’s a bit elusive. It was good as we could do as a team.”

Ricciardo is the only Red Bull driver capable of winning the world championship but team boss Christian Horner declined to issue orders for Vettel to yield.

Ricciardo could have picked up another three rankings points but perhaps Horner knew he would be wasting his breath. As Vettel barked at Red Bull’s garage when they wanted him to make way for Ricciardo at the Chinese Grand Prix in April: “Tough luck.”

“Daniel is totally comfortable and happy with the situation,” Horner claimed. “It would be wrong to interfere. If there was a realistic chance of Daniel winning the race, and Sebastian was mathematically out of the championship, then we’d do the best we can for the team.

“But it didn’t make sense to interfere with team orders. Daniel, OK, he’s conceded three points to Seb, but is that going to make the difference at the end of the year. That’s impossible to say without a crystal ball.

“We had to let them race.”

Ricciardo was shafted by Alonso on the first corner. The Italian missed the turn while trailing the Red Bulls. Returning to the track from his short-cut, he allowed Vettel back in front of him.

Ricciardo was not afforded the same courtesy.

“Obviously he went a fair way off the track and got a bit of an advantage,” the West Australian said. “He gave it back to Seb and not to me. If he didn’t brake as late as he did, would he have been behind me?

“The pro of those bitumen runoffs are that they’re safer for the drivers, which is great. But the cons are that people get away with mistakes. If that was Monaco, Fernando would’ve been in the wall.”

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg stalled his car on the grid. He retired after 14 laps and lost the championship lead to Hamilton.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen had a Sunday drive to remember. The seat in his cockpit became so hot that he suffered minor burns to his back. When the cooling system failed in his drink bottle, he scalded his lips and throat when he took a swig of boiling water.

Dehydrated and cramping, the Dane became so distressed that he spent sections of the race steering with one hand.