Daniel Ricꦛciardo described his Malaysian Grand Prix as "a bit lonely" until he was caught late on by Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, defending well ♑to take the third place as Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen claimed his second Formula 1 victory.

Ricciardo started fourth in Malaysia and said on Saturday that his rac🔯e would have to be "pretty s**t" ♍if he were to be caught by Vettel, who lined up last following an engine issue in qualifying.

However, Vettel's race day pace, as well as time lost in an extended bat﷽tle with Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas for third place, meant Ricciardo had to defend his podium finish from the Ferrari driver ♍late on.

"The plan was to keep him behind. My engineer kept telling me he was catching me and I was like 'alright, thanks, I know,'" Ricciardo🧜 said.

"So I didn't get to a point where I told him to shut his mouth I wasn't getting much feedback on the radio, because I think he got the picture of it.𓆉"

When Vettel꧒ finally caught Ricciardo, having made up 16 places to sit fourth, the Red Bull driver had to mount a strong d💞efense until tyre and fuel management caused the Ferrari to drop back.

"I obviously expected him to attack until the end, I was obviously going to do all I could to ke💙ep him behind but I expected him to keep coming and I guess maybe he killed the tyres trying to chase me and getting close to me," Ricciardo said. 

"I think having a battle, having Seb catchꦓ me and keep me on my toes made it easier."

Finishing some nine seconds back from second-placed Lewis H🧔amilton and over 20 behind Verstappen, Ricciard🌸o admitted it was a quiet race until the late fight, but was nevertheless delighted with the result.

"A bit of a, for the most part, a lonely race but obviously congrats to M💟ax," Ricciardo said🦂.

"He was strong all weekend. Our first double podium of the year so a good re𒁏sult."