Daniel Ricciardo achieved his second podium of the year and his best result to date with a second position finish in Singapore behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
On the back of a performance level since the start of the race weekend, Red Bull was aiming for an aggressive strategy and hoping to undercut Vettel by extending Ricciardo's first tyre stint, but a Virtual Safety Car deployment on lap 13 ruined the scheme.
The Australian driver, whose priority was to keep his tyre degradation in check while maintaining the gap with Vettel, was left to chase his Ferrari counterpart all evening.
But his Red Bull just did not have the outright speed to mount a proper assault on a fully-in-control leading Ferrari.
"I think Seb experimented a bit today," Ricciardo said. "At the start of the race he realised I was coming and I think if it wasn't for the safety car it would have been pretty close, the undercut may have been possible."
"It was frustrating to see the Safety car come out but I knew there was one more stop in the race, and one more chance to replicate the same undercut procedure. But it seemed like Seb learned a little bit from the first stint."
"He broke away but I was able to make the tyres last a bit on the option and close in when the Safety car came out again."
Once shod with the prime tyres after his second pit stop, Ricciardo kept a close contact with Vettel, even increasing his pace but the Ferrari driver responded tit for tat.
"Seb's pace was quite good, and I think it was quite representative of qualifying. We came here pretty confident, and the pace we showed here all weekend was strong, so we should be pretty happy with this weekend.
"I think Mercedes' lack of performance here was very much track related," Ricciardo concluded.
"It was definitely an off-weekend for them but I expect them to be back in Suzuka. But if forever reason it turns out that Ferrari and us have made so much progress, you'll definitely see us up here on the podium a few more times this year."
REPORT: Vettel takes third win as Hamilton retires in Singapore
AS IT HAPPENED: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix
Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore
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