It was no different at the famous circuit on Sunday, although unlike the disastrous final minutes of 2016's grand prix, this year the racing gods were finally on his side.

After lacklustre qualifying in which he couldn't get the pace or the space to challenge for better than fifth, the Australian started the race in procession behind the leaders. But then, when the chance was there to improve, he took it.

Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Valtteri, who were running fourth and third respectively, came in on lap 35 while Ricciardo chose to stay out for four more blisteringly fast laps in the newly created clear air.

By the time he left the pits on lap 39 he'd jumped from fifth to third and even began to chase down Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari - the pole sitter himself dudded by an early pitstop that gifted Sebastian Vettel the lead.

Having ticked the strategy and racecraft box Ricciardo then got a lucky break. After a late safety car Ricciardo almost muffed the restart, brushing the wall on the first corner at the end of the main straight. Bottas tried to to take his chance to pass, but Ricciardo plonked the Red Bull in the centre of the track up the hill and held on as much as his cool tyres would allow.

"I'm much happier today," he said after the race. "I can't obviously complain how it worked out and I have to thank the team. It was cool to show some pace today and we had that clear track. I didn't think the tyres had that much more but I just got into that rhythm, was able to punch out some good times.

"I knew the pace was right, my engineer was encouraging me on the radio saying: 'Pace is really good. Keep going, keep going!' That was certainly motivating and my thanks to the homies.

"After the safety car it was pretty unexpected when I touched the wall as I didn't brake late or anything, I felt I was quite cautious, but then when I turned I thought the car isn't turning, I then hit the wall and thought I damaged the front wing or something but in the end it was OK. I'm just happy to be back on the podium to be honest. That was definitely the icing on the cake and is a reward for myself and the team."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was, not surprisingly, happy with the result, although a fuming Verstappen probably took some managing behind closed doors.

"A very strong drive by Daniel ... things went his way today, getting on to the podium in third place. But what really made the race for him were his laps in free air around the pit stop.

"We'd elected to try for the undercut on (Valtteri) Bottas with Max and we were within a whisper of achieving that, which Valtteri covered. And that in turn gave Daniel free air which he used to great effect, and that was where he obtained the podium finish. Even after surviving a brush with the wall at the re-start after the safety car, he achieved everything possible today."

Horner was even promising more improvement to come for the Canadian Grand Prix on June 11, although given Red Bull's stop-start momentum so far this year it could yet to prove another false dawn.

"The cars took another step forward here in Monaco and we thank the team at ExxonMobil for bringing an engine oil upgrade here for us, another incremental gain in performance, and we now look forward to Montreal."