As tales of sporting redemption go, few will have been harder to earn than Daniel Ricciardo’s very personal journey to the top spot of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday. By the time the Australian had successfully persuaded the Prince and Princess of the principality to join him in swigging from a champagne bottle on the podium, his sheer joy was clearly infectious.

A mixture of disbelief, relief and exhaustion were etched across his face, if indeed alongside the usual beaming grin that had been so notably absent when a win here had been so cruelly wrenched from his grasp two years ago.

Even before the weekend began Ricciardo had been confident enough in the form of his Red Bull to talk of possible redemption for the incident in 2016 when a team pit stop error cost him victory. By race day he had done everything he needed to put it within his grasp. Quickest throughout practice and then untouchable in qualifying, Ricciardo had entered the race as clear favourite.

Play Video 0:34 Daniel Ricciardo: 'We won Monaco, so it feels good'– video

He duly finished it on top, in front of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in second and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in third, the order in which they had begun on the grid. The race was, as is often the case, something of a procession on the narrow streets of Monaco but was far from straightforward for Ricciardo.

He had led from the off and looked to be fairly comfortable in front until he suffered a power problem on lap 28 in the MGU-K. He was unable to use seventh and eighth gears, had to adjust his brake balance forward and needed to ensure he looked after his tyres as it became clear the race would have to be run with only one stop.

His team were unable to resolve the problem and he had to drive the remaining 50 laps with absolute perfection and on a tight line to ensure Vettel had no way through, despite his power advantage.

Passing is of course notoriously difficult in Monaco but Ricciardo still had to ensure he did not put a wheel wrong to claim the win. He did so and after 78 flawless laps under intense pressure from behind there is no doubt he and Red Bull had a real reason to celebrate on the occasion of their 250th grand prix.

He had, as was the case in 2016, once again endured a rollercoaster of emotions in the cockpit to do so. “I expected my race to be over,” he said of the moment he lost power. “I was stressing out a little. Then I was thinking, ‘What do we have to do to win around here?’ That was not a good feeling and I couldn’t enjoy much of the race after that. I still don’t know how we got there.”

Yet he did and his jubilant team principal, Christian Horner, compared it to Michael Schumacher’s remarkable second-place at Barcelona in 1994 when the German completed most of the race stuck in fifth gear. While it had still to sink in fully with the Australian he accepted the praise. “I think it was definitely my best weekend and the most satisfying,” he said. “There’s still a lot to process but as a whole this is probably the best weekend of my career.”

He admitted it had been a race of control and that it was a case of managing his car and his performance rather than the flat-out charge that characterised his win in China. But for all that, when he does look back on Monaco he can consider that, while it very nearly left him broken-hearted again, this time he emerged triumphant and stronger than ever.

Hamilton, whose lead over Vettel in the world championship has now been narrowed to 14 points, was less enamoured with the afternoon, concerned that having to manage tyres, the inability even to attempt passes and consequently slow lap times made for an uneventful race which he had not enjoyed.

“I really am happy with the weekend. To come away with third, with a difficult weekend car-wise, I am happy. I am happy for Daniel as he is a great dude,” he said. “But Monaco has got the biggest build-up and is the most special race of the year and this is now a race gone for me.

“Formula One needs to apply a different schedule here. It should not be a one-stop race, for example. From a racing driver’s point of view we were never pushing. It was insane how little I was pushing. I was 10 seconds behind but I am still conflicted because in my heart I want to win this race but the team just wanted me to bring the car home.”

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Kimi Raikkonen finished in fourth, with Valtteri Bottas in fifth, he Force India of Esteban Ocon completed in sixth and the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly was seventh. The Renaults of Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr were eighth and tenth respectively, while Max Verstappen recovered well from starting at the back of the grid to finish in ninth.