Starting from second after yet another brilliant qualifying performance, Ricciardo was little more than an also ran as the race unfolded on the long straights of the Baku street circuit.

Despite the recent power boost to his Renault engine, the Australian just couldn't muster the straight-line speed or light up the tyres enough to be as competitive as his front row status had indicated.

His seventh-place finish - after a run of races where he should have won or claimed a podium - saw him slip down the championship standings for fourth to fifth. Ricciardo is now trailing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who has been nowhere near as impressive on track.

Ricciardo had obviously been expecting more, saying after the race "the aim was to get Nico". Rosberg, of course, flew off into the distance in his Mercedes and was not caught by anyone, while Red Bull was immediately under attack from Ferrari.

"After lap three we started to slide the rear and there was no way of controlling it," Ricciardo told reporters. I went from being very optimistic about our race to being uncertain. I don't think we had the wrong strategy, one stop would have been ideal but we had to adapt and were forced into a two stop race."

It appeared throughout the day that Red Bull struggled to light up the tyres, with both cars being among the few to go onto the medium compound in a bid to stay competitive and on track.

"We need to understand why because we usually perform well in hot races, like Singapore," said Ricciardo.

Indeed the lack of performance in Baku would be troubling for Red Bull who had obviously thought they were again in a position to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari for podium places.

The fact that off-track team failures cost Ricciardo likely wins in the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix's, added to a series of unlucky on-track incidents at Russia and Canada must have Ricciardo wishing he could push the reset button on the past two months.

Instead it's business as usual at the front, with Rosberg extending his championship lead and the Ferrari's shading Red Bull.

Mind you, Lewis Hamilton had some re-setting of his own at Baku as he raged in his cockpit and threatened to push all the buttons trying  to reset the settings on his flailing Mercedes. The amusing deadpan from the garage: "We don't advise that".

As always in formula one the equipment and the strategy comes from the big boys in the backroom, and Ricciardo having confirmed his place at Red Bull until 2018 has acknowledged his faith in Christian Horner and his team to deliver him a car that can be competitive every week. It is happening, but slowly.

Red Bull has long spruiked the chances of improvements as the year progresses and the likelihood of a competitive car on the tighter and friendlier tracks at Budapest, Silverstone, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.

It can't come soon enough for Ricciardo, who after a stressful month finally appeared to cut himself some slack and shrug his shoulders.

"Today was a bit unexpected. I got everyone's hopes up yesterday by saying it could be the race of the season, It was, however, pretty uneventful."