Daniel Ricciardo cut a frustrated figure as he spoke out against his penalty and then bemoaned the pace of Mercedes at the Australian GP.

The home favourite saw his chances of a strong result in Melbourne take a major blow when the stewards awarded him a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flag conditions in practice.

His resulting fifth-place in Saturday's qualifying session means the Red Bull driver will start eighth in the race on Sunday and speaking after the session he claimed the punishment far exceeded to crime.

“I thought [the grid penalty] was unjust," Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1. "A penalty sure, there are reprimands, fines, other things but to shoot me in the ankle before the season has started – I thought they could have done better.

“From fifth we go to eighth. The first parts of qualifying were OK but at the end, we missed a few tenths. It looked like it was all in the first sector.

“I don’t really know with the balance what more I could have done there. For sure it was frustrating a little bit."

Also Read:

• Hamilton romps to commanding pole for the Australian GP
• Verstappen worried old Red Bull weakness could be highlighted at Australian GP
• Ferrari make engine gains but Mercedes set to activate "party mode"

As with everyone, what took Ricciardo aback the most in qualifying was the sudden surge in performance Lewis Hamilton produced on his last lap in Q3, making what appeared to be a close fight for pole at one stage a foregone conclusion.

The reason many believe is the special power modes Mercedes have in their engine and responding to the world champion's advantage, admitted it was pretty demoralising.

“That sucks,” the 28-year-old said. “It is frustrating because everyone else wants to see them get challenged a bit more but that was a little bit of a punch in the stomach to everyone."

Such is the single lap pace that the Brackley-based team appears to have, Ricciardo believes most "top drivers" could have secured pole position.

“I think Lewis is very good but I don’t think he is too good,” he added. "The car and their package are too good. It is not to discredit Lewis, not at all, but I think even him at 90 percent with that package that they had today, he still would have got pole.

"The buffer that they had then was a little bit disheartening, so we have to try and figure it out.”