Ricciardo 3rd in Mexico after Vettel assessed late penalty

Vettel was livid at the end of the race about the incident, pulling up alongside Verstappen after delivering a foul-mouthed spray over the the team radio about the 19-year-old.

But instead of conceding the place to Vettel when he rejoined the circuit, Verstappen, who has attracted criticism for his defensive tactics this season, stayed in front of the four-time champion.

The laps spent behind Verstappen then backed Vettel into Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull. Ricciardo made contact with Vettel on the penultimate lap after a late lunge down the inside. But I hope I have the best features of all three.

However, their celebrations were nearly drowned out by the row that raged in the aftermath of a stormy battle between the Ferrari and Red Bull teams in the closing laps.

However, we may have seen the last of these rash moves.

“You just had to make do with a pretty badly-balanced auto, but this year we should be able to get a bit more out of it”.

“I was just trying to get past”.

“I’m aware of it, but come Sunday it’s completely not in my mind”, said Ricciardo of being a championship battle spoiler.

“We thought we’d improve a little bit on previous year, but not to where we are now, fighting for third in the drivers’ championship and second in the constructors’ championship”. He left the track and didn’t move [over], so you can understand why I got annoyed.

Verstappen disagreed with the penalty and described Vettel’s behaviour as “ridiculous”.

Verstappen added: “He is just a very frustrated guy”.

Ricciardo’s third-place finish opens up an unassailable 55-point lead over Vettel in third place for the championship, his second time in the top three in the past three years.

“I know Daniel in these situations, he’s jumping into the gap even if he doesn’t make the rest of the corner”.

“He did what everyone has been complaining about – moving under braking”, Ricciardo told Sky F1. So I need to have a look at that again. “I was full of adrenalin, you can imagine because I don’t think it was right what Max did”, Vettel said.

“There’s more degradation than with the Soft tyres so it’s up to me and with the vehicle balance to make it last as long as we can”.

“I will speak to him because this is how ridiculous he is handling it”.