Verstappen happy with 'clean and fair' fight with Ricciardo

Max Verstappen raced to his fifth podium finish of the season at Sepang following a steady and solid drive and a good battle with team mate and race winner Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bull duo found itself racing for an outright win after Lewis Hamilton retired with 15 laps to go with an engine failure.

Racing on different strategies, with Verstappen having chosen a three-stop call while Ricciardo opted for a two-stopper, the duo was paired when both drivers headed to the pits together under the Virtual Safety Car period on lap 41 which followed Hamilton's retirement.

Ricciardo's track position gave him a small advantage, as he was serviced first, but when the race resumed, the Dutchman struggled to remain in his team mate's wake.

"I was pushing," Verstappen insisted. "But also when you get very close, it overheats tyres and I was on old tyres.

"It was very difficult to get into DRS and, like I said, if you are on old tyres – with new tyres I had a few laps advantage but on older tyres to get within a second is very hard. Until the last lap we were pushing really hard."

Before Hamilton's failure, Ricciardo and Verstappen had gone wheel to wheel in a spectacular but clean battle.

"We had a good and fair fight. We gave each other room, and I think it shows the respect between us. It looked like it might happen for me but then the Virtual Safety Car came out again.

Following the team's ultimate pit stop, the Red Bull pit wall assigned no orders to its drivers, leaving the duo free to battle it out.

"The team said we were free to race but in a clean way and that is what we did. Normally you can cruise a bit at the end of the race and it gets a bit less physical but until the last lap we were pushing really hard.

"It's a great result for the team, with a lot of points. We can be very pleased with this."

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