Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his frustration at teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s immaturity as his start to the Formula One season was overshadowed by a post-race skirmish which almost ended in disaster.

Ricciardo finished 13th at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, as Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen waltzed to victory as his reign at the top of the sport showed no signs of letting up.

But the spotlight shone on Ricciardo post-race, as his teammate’s frustrations boiled over after the checkered flag after a team order to swap positions with the Australian late in the race.

After Tsunoda had led Ricciardo for most of the race, he took umbrage from a directive to let the Australian - having pitted and on fresh tyres - through so he could chase Kevin Magnussen ahead.

Tsunoda initially ignored the order, but after eventually letting Ricciardo through, almost caused a crash between the two post-race.

The Japanese driver riskily overtook Ricciardo as they headed back to the pits, causing his car to lock up on a corner, before he then darted down the outside of his teammate, narrowly missing him with the car.

Ricciardo was caught on the team radio saying: “what the f...!...I’ll save it. He’s a f...ing helmet.”

When questioned post-race, Ricciardo played a straight bat and refused to spark a war of word with his teammate, but said say it was an immature reaction from his teammate.

“I came on the radio and I was trying to stay cool. But I’m being really sensible now, so let’s call it immaturity,” he said to F1 TV.

“He’s obviously frustrated with the team orders call. But let’s be real, this is something that we talk about before the race.

“It was very likely I was going to use the softs (tyres) at the end of the race, so he knew that there was a chance that I’d have a pace advantage at the end.”

Asked post-race for point of view, Tsunoda said he did not want to talk about it.

“We were fighting outside of the points anyway, P13-14, and I was just overtaking Magnussen, I was side by side, and then we swapped the cars in the last few laps,” he said.

“To be honest, I can’t understand. We have to review… In the end, (Daniel) didn’t overtake as well so whatever.”