Daniel Ricciardo said he felt relief when he crossed the line ahead of Sebastian Vettel and returned to the podium with third position in Hungary.
Despite a strong start, Ricciardo settled for third behind the Mercedes drivers in the opening stint. He briefly looked to have taken the initiative with an early second and final pit stop for soft tyres, though it soon became clear Mercedes had pace in hand to open the gap.
Explaining the logic behind the earlier second stop, Ricciardo said: "At the time we looked quite competitive to Mercedes. I think I was closing them a few tenths a lap, and basically we thought they were struggling and tried to be aggressive and try and get close to them if they were going to pit soon too.
"Also, I think Seb [Vettel] wasn't too far behind but it was more about trying to fight for the win rather than defending behind us. That was pretty much that. After that they just turned up the volume unfortunately."
Following that stop, Ricciardo spent the last laps holding off Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who had fresher soft tyres on his car.
"In the end the fight was then with Sebastian, he got pretty close at the end, I did a long stint on those tyres. It wasn't easy, the last lap, he had DRS and in my mirrors it looked like he got quite close in Turn 1. A bit of a fight so it was a bit of a relief, actually, coming across and keeping third."
Ricciardo briefly looked like he was going to have the lead coming out of Turn 1 by passing both Mercedes drivers around the outside. However, eventual winner Lewis Hamilton had good drive out of the exit on the inside and powered clear of the Red Bull, who then lost another position to Nico Rosberg at Turn 2.
When asked if he could have led throughout if he had successfully passed both Silver Arrows cars, he said: "I think for a part of the race, sure. There were moments where we looked competitive, compared to Mercedes. I think once the first stint settled they had a bit more pace than us.
"But at the start of the second stint, with the soft, we seemed really competitive but in the end it looked like Mercedes was doing what they needed to do and their pace got stronger and stronger. There were parts of the race where we thought we were but they were able to up the pace. Probably couldn't have lasted the 70 laps if I'd got the lead at the start - but what if, I don't know."