MARINA BAY, Singapore -- For someone who has never won in Singapore, Daniel Ricciardo has an enviable record under the lights at Marina Bay.
The Australian finished second on Sunday for the third straight season, but try as he might, the perfect weekend hasn't quite fallen into place just yet.
"I can't win the bloody thing. I'm trying, I'm trying," he joked. "That was the most frustrating thing, not to get that first win here but I've still got to be pretty grateful and happy with another podium."
Starting third, Ricciardo was slow off the line but benefited from a dramatic opening lap collision between Ferrari pair Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen. The trio all made contact in the run into Turn 1, causing a triple retirement.
Ricciardo emerged in second place, behind eventual winner Lewis Hamilton, and believes it was fortunate he didn't get away well otherwise he may have been caught up in the chaos.
"In hindsight it was a good thing I had an average start as it gave me some time to see what was going to happen," he said. "I saw that there was contact with Kimi and Max but I wasn't sure where Max's car was going to go so I already backed off just in case Max turned into me.
"I was playing with caution and looking ahead. Fortunately for me that was the right thing to do."
After the collision, Ricciardo was unable to match Hamilton's pace out front and failed to capitalise on a late Safety Car when the pair had switched to slick tyres.
"We didn't have the pace that we showed on Friday in the long runs," he said. "We struggled to look after the tyres and it felt like when I could punch out a good lap time I couldn't really maintain it whereas Lewis could answer and answer again so it felt like every time we tried to match his pace it would take more out of [my] tyres."