Christian Horner says he has been impressed by the way Daniel Ricciardo has dealt with a difficult start to the season after suffering another engine problem.

Ricciardo's engine failed as he exited the final corner in the Bahrain Grand Prix, allowing him to coast over the finish line before stopping by the pit wall. The problem follows a number of difficulties for Red Bull, with Ricciardo's sixth place on Sunday matching his best result of the year so far.

Asked how Ricciardo had handled the team's struggles this season, Horner replied: "No different at all.

"His attitude, his approach, his personality, his demeanour is exactly the same. That is great for the guys around him as well, he is not letting his head drop or throwing a moody there is none of that. I am very impressed with how he has dealt with it."

Confirming that Ricciardo will be on his fourth engine out of the four allowed this season at the next race in Barcelona, Horner says he is certain the Bahrain power unit cannot be salvaged.

"All the fireworks went off and the engine felt like it needed to join in! A fairly spectacular finish, it failed 200m before the line, but we had enough momentum to cross the line.

"I think that engine will be a coffee table in the future."

Click here for analysis of the development war between Ferrari and Mercedes 

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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.

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