Ricciardo says F1 Australian GP weekend 'snowballed' out of control

Ricciardo crashed out of the final part of qualifying on Saturday - an incident he later described as 'weird' - and was later hit with a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, which should have meant the Australian started the race from 15th.

But his rebuilt car ground to a halt on the reconnaissance lap to the pre-race grid on Sunday, with a gearbox sensor failure leaving him stuck in sixth gear and requiring him to be towed back to the pits.

Ricciardo was eventually able to join the race two laps after the start, but retired after 25 laps when a suspected fuel pressure problem left him stranded out on track.

Those woes compounded a frustrating weekend, with Red Bull having also gone the wrong way with Ricciardo and team-mate Max Verstappen's set-up on Friday, and Ricciardo said he was simply pleased to see the back of the event.

"On the plus side, I'm getting out of here - it's been a long week," he said.

"It's been fun, but I feel bad for everyone, bad for the fans obviously - there's more people here supporting me than the others.

"It just kinda snowballed from yesterday.

"The five[-place] grid penalty sounded bad enough but we had other issues.

"We were laps down, but getting some information - it was valuable track time.

"At the end we believe it was something to do with fuel pressure - basically it just switched off.

"It was just instant, there was no procedure I could do to stay out there.

"I'm happy to move on. I'm disappointed today, but I'll be ready tomorrow to go for China."

VERSTAPPEN HAPPIER WITH RACE PACE

Team-mate Verstappen fared better than Ricciardo and was happier with his performance compared to qualifying, saying he had not expected to have kept Kimi Raikkonen - whose Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel won the race - in sight throughout on his way to fifth.

"I was still a bit surprised I was that close to Kimi," said Verstappen.

"[My] pace was quite good compared to him, and behind me there was not much pressure.

"The car behaved quite a bit better in the race than qualifying.

"We still need to improve, and we will, so we'll see in the next few races."