Daniel Ricciardo suffers heartbreak after Red Bull strategic disaster

Exactly 10 years ago today, Daniel Ricciardo stood on the Monaco podium a broken man. He should have been celebrating his first victory on the most glamorous stage in motorsport. 

Instead, a botched pit stop and a questionable strategy call conspired to rip it away from him. It had all started so brilliantly. 

Ricciardo lit up the streets of the Circuit de Monaco in qualifying with a 1:13.622, beating Nico Rosberg by 0.169 seconds to claim his maiden F1 pole position. 

The Australian was in imperious form all weekend, and on a circuit where track position is everything, pole was as close to a golden ticket as it gets.

Race day brought rain, a delayed start and a safety car opening, but none of that troubled Ricciardo. 

He controlled the field from the front, building a commanding lead on full wet tyres as conditions slowly improved. The win looked his for the taking.

Red Bull's strategy failure

The pivotal moment came when Red Bull brought Ricciardo in early to switch from wets to intermediates, committing him to a two-stop strategy. 

Mercedes, meanwhile, kept Lewis Hamilton out longer on wets before jumping directly to slicks in a single stop, a move that immediately put the strategic pressure on Ricciardo.

When Red Bull finally called Ricciardo in for his second stop to fit slicks, disaster struck. A last-second change of tyre compound meant the set was not ready when he arrived in the pit box. 

Ricciardo sat stranded, watching precious seconds drain away, before rejoining alongside Hamilton into Sainte Dévote, only to lose out on the exit.

From there, the race was over. Monaco does not forgive, and Hamilton controlled the gap to take the chequered flag 7.2 seconds clear, with Ricciardo a devastated second.

His pain was raw afterwards. "How do I feel? Without swearing it's difficult," Ricciardo said. "Like I've been run over by an 18-wheel truck for the second weekend in a row."

Having also lost a likely win in Spain the race before, the frustration was compounded. "From the outside, we put on a show but it shouldn't have been as exciting as it was, two weekends in a row I have been screwed," he added.

"I actually hate being like this, being miserable. I got a podium in Monaco, I should be happy and grateful. But I have no idea what to say, and nothing good to say. Not today. I don't think we can achieve anything today. I just want to get the hell out of here to be honest."

Two years later, Ricciardo would return to Monaco and finally claim the win he so desperately deserved in 2018, but on this day a decade ago, the sport offered one of its cruellest lessons: in F1, and especially in Monaco, what should be yours is never truly yours until the chequered flag falls.