Ricciardo says Raikkonen's F1 grid penalty led to tough Japanese GP

Ricciardo finished sixth, one place behind Raikkonen, and blamed being moved to the damp side of the grid and the need to go around the slow-starting Lewis Hamilton for slipping behind Sergio Perez's Force India.

While he held fourth into the first corner thanks to Hamilton dropping back, Ricciardo believes the time lost running behind Perez in the first stint ruined his race.

"Kimi's penalty this morning seemed like a great thing and then I saw the right-hand side of the grid and I was wishing I didn't gain that position," Ricciardo told Autosport.

"It seemed it was wetter further up the grid and Lewis's launch was terrible, I'm sure he'll say that was down to the still-damp track and that was a bit of a shame and allowed Perez to get us.

"Being stuck behind that slower car at the beginning really shaped the race for us."

Ricciardo also slipped behind Vettel on the first lap after being passed on the approach to 130R, ultimately also finishing behind Raikkonen, who recovered to fifth.

Although Ricciardo did jump ahead of Perez in the first round of pitstops by stopping two laps earlier, by the time he had done that he was already 19 seconds off race leader Nico Rosberg.

The Australian added that the power problem that held him back in qualifying might have played a part in his inability to clear Perez.

"Without seeing the data, I won't say anything yet but I wouldn't be surprised if we were down on the straights," said Ricciardo.

"Vettel got me pretty easily at the beginning and then we couldn't really make an impression on Perez.

"So I did feel we were down on the straights, but how much is that down to the issues we had yesterday, I can't definitely say yet.

"We got stuck behind Perez but there wasn't anything I feel I could've done differently, we just killed a bit of the tyres behind him and didn't have the straightline speed to make an impression on him."