Daniel Ricciardo says it hurt him to be lapped by former team-mate Sebastian Vettel in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Vettel took an impressive victory for Ferrari as he outpaced the two Mercedes cars to win at Sepang, beating Lewis Hamilton by over eight seconds. With the top three cars so far clear of the rest of the field, everyone up to seventh-placed Max Verstappen was lapped by Vettel.

Ricciardo finished tenth behind team-mate Daniil Kvyat after another frustrating day for Red Bull, and when asked how far away the team appears when he sees Ferrari taking such a big step forward, Ricciardo replied: “Yeah that's the icing on the cake.

“Congrats to Seb but getting lapped by him wasn't the best feeling in the world.”

And Ricciardo says he felt “helpless” to deliver a good result as Red Bull struggled with front brake issues which left him unable to successfully defend in a number of battles.

“Not exciting, just helpless to be honest, I feel like I come in fired up and ready to go and it was just hard to put up a fight today. We had a few other issues here and there which sort of hindered us in a fight.

“It's frustrating, I feel I want to battle and have some fun but every time we did it was just had to pay consequences for trying, and I was just driving around and not really getting much out of it. Yeah, it was a long day.”

Click here for Sunday's gallery from the Malaysian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Bearman blasts Haas: ‘Soft tyre strategy screwed my race’

Oliver Bearman left Bahrain convinced Haas had thrown away a genuine chance of points after…

7 hours ago

F1i Driver Ratings for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac (DNF) – 3/10 Bottas spun out in the opening laps of the…

9 hours ago

Audi to light up Singapore with striking one-off F1 livery

Audi is turning the Singapore night into a canvas of its own, unveiling a striking…

10 hours ago

The unsuspected failure of Michael Andretti in F1

Michael Andretti was born into this world on this day, 64 years ago. An impressive…

11 hours ago

Lawson hails Racing Bulls gamble after ‘doubting’ team's call

Racing Bulls turned a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix into a points bonanza, with Liam Lawson…

12 hours ago

Alonso left wanting more despite Aston Martin’s best result

Fernando Alonso delivered to Aston Martin its best result of the 2026 season in Sepang,…

13 hours ago