ricciardo qualified third at the spanish grand prix, and after the two mercedes cars of lewis hamilton and nico rosberg crashed out on the first lap, he led the early stages of the race. after a remarkable strategy call by ferrari resulting in a very short third stint for sebastian vettel, red bull decided to answer this by pitting ricciardo again and cover vettel, also going for the presumed faster three-stop strategy. this dropped him behind vettel, new teammate max verstappen and kimi räikkönen on track, and after a few failed attempts at passing vettel, a tyre blowout late on in the race meant that he finished fourth again, behind eventual winner verstappen, and the ferraris of räikkönen and vettel.