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Ricciardo pitted his RB in the closing stages for a set of soft tyres, enabling him to set the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap.
It was a move that, along with offering the Australian bragging rights in what is widely expected to be his final F1 start, it prevented race winner Lando Norris from scoring a bonus point.
The McLaren driver, who won the Singapore GP, is in a title fight with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
Before Ricciardo’s late push, Norris held fastest lap and, by being inside the top 10, would have scored an additional championship point.
“I did not see it coming,” McLaren team boss Andrea Stella confessed.
“I was a little surprised that the highest priority of Racing Bulls racing in Singapore was to go and score the fastest lap of the race.
“At the same time, I have so much sympathy, support, and friendship with Daniel that I’m just happy that he may add this fastest lap to his [record].”
While robbing Norris of just a single point, it was significant.
Without it, Verstappen can finish second to Norris in every race and sprint for the rest of the season and still be crowned world champion.
However, that it was Ricciardo, at the wheel of an RB, that stole the point away raised questions surrounding the relationship with Red Bull Racing and whether there was any communication or collusion between the teams.
Such behaviour would likely be covered under the International Sporting Code, which has elements that cover sporting ethics.
While not levelling such accusations at Ricciardo or RB, Stella did concede it was an area that could probably do with being tidied up.
“As soon as you invoke the sportsmanship, I think you need to approach this with. a sense of responsibility that I want to have,” Stella said.
“I don’t know the facts. I just saw that Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap, and they achieved it.
“But for me here talk about sportsmanship and so on, I think it will be out of place.
“We have to take it at face value, that’s for the fastest lap, and potentially as part of a longer-term conversation, we need to put the sport in a position in which, at any stage, being it track side or being it factory side, teams behave in a totally autonomous manner.
“This is a constructors’ championship, a drivers’ championship, it’s not a coalition championship.
“Therefore this needs to be definitely addressed, but at no point I have elements now to say Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull.
“I just find it a little peculiar.”
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner denied any involvement in RB’s decision to pursue the fastest lap.
“Look, Daniel, he obviously wanted to finish the race on a high,” he offered by way of explanation.
Ricciardo admitted that he had an inkling why RB pitted him in the closing laps, but also dismissed it, suggesting it was a way of energising himself in the closing laps after what had been an uneventful race for the 35-year-old.
“I had an idea but I also thought they were just letting me have some fun,” he reasoned.
“We were a long way out of the points. We tried, obviously soft [tyres] and just trying to be a bit more aggressive at the start.
“Our starts haven’t been great this year, and we’re on the dirty side, so we thought ‘Okay, if we put a hard on, probably going backwards, so let’s put a soft on and see where it takes us’.”
That forced Ricciardo into a two-stop race, leaving him well out of contention.
However, with his late fastest lap, the Aussie cheekily suggested he’d earned a Christmas gift from Max Verstappen.
“I’m kind of hoping Max wins [the championship] by a point not, but I guaranteed myself a very nice Christmas present,” he joked.
“So sorry Lando but I think I’d get a good Christmas present!”
