Confusion cost Ricciardo shot at P3

Ricciardo still matched his best grid slot of the year with fourth, one place ahead of Red Bull team-mate Daniil Kvyat.

The Australian, however, was left to rue a late call with regard to some switch changes going into his final run that cost him power, and ultimately a shot at third, finishing 0.192s behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

"People thought I was in a different engine mode, which I wasn't, so when they told me to make the standard change it's put us out of the correct one," said Ricciardo.

"Starting the lap I could feel the power was down, so I realised we were in the wrong one. I turned it back, but it was too late.

"So before Turn 1 I was two tenths down, and that was that.

"It was all a bit late. Normally I was getting the call to make whatever switches I needed to make around Turn 16, and that was fine. It was giving me enough time.

"But this call came in the second to last corner, just after Rascasse, so I quickly got on the switches, but coming out of the last corner I could feel the power wasn't right.

"We could have been third, which is the biggest frustration because we know it could have been better.

"To be fair to the engineers it's the first time it's happened, which is probably just due to the heat of Monaco, so to speak. It got the better of them."

Despite the apparent step forward for Red Bull, Ricciardo feels the improvement was primarily "track specific".

"We're able to run max downforce, to bolt everything on we can, and work on using the car where it can work rather than trying to sacrifice a bit of balance for power," he said.

"So most of it is the nature of the track, but I've always enjoyed driving around here as well."

Kvyat, after recent criticism of his performances by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, matched his best qualifying performance of the season with fifth.

"It was one of those few times this year I felt really confident in the car, so that was very important," said the Russian.

"But there were also lots of positive things from the general car behaviour, and now we're in a situation where we have to grow and take a few steps forward."