Vettel was sent into a spin at Turn 1 after making contact with Raikkonen's car, the Finn trying to defend from Verstappen, who had moved down the inside after a poor start.

Vettel ended up having to rejoin the field at the back, while Raikkonen's front wing was damaged.

The German reckons Verstappen was too aggressive in trying recover the position after being passed by Raikkonen at the start.

"I had a very good start. I think the best start from all the people in front of me. I was P2," said Vettel. "Nico [Rosberg] was ahead but I was right behind on the outside leading the way into the first corner.

"I could hardly see Kimi because I was more than half a car ahead when I turned in, and to be honest he was already in the blind spot of Max.

"Just looking at it, it was a very bold move [from Verstappen] trying to recover those two places in one corner diving down the inside, and that obviously was the reason why Kimi couldn't turn in and follow the lead that I was dictating as the leading car of that group.

"The problem is you can't fit three cars in that corner and the inside one is able to trigger trouble to the outside and I think that's what Kimi and myself suffered from."

Verstappen went on to clash again with Raikkonen and later with Vettel during the race, incident for which the Finn was critical of the Dutchman.

Vettel believes Verstappen's driving was not too smart today.

"I think it's right to criticise but it's wrong to try to make it too much of a story," Vettel said.

"I get along with him, I like him, he's aggressive, I think that's a strength of him, but certain moves, especially under braking, I don't think are correct, and I think it's something that needs to click and he needs to understand.

"In the end it wasn't the smartest thing to do because I lost a lot of time, he lost a lot of time so he lost three or four seconds fighting with me. I was clearly faster and got past him anyway the lap after."

Vettel, who finished in sixth three places ahead of Raikkonen, had no doubt Ferrari had the pace to finish on the podium.

"Today the pace was good. Obviously my car was damaged. Kimi's car was damaged so it wasn't ideal and we couldn't see the true pace, but it was still strong enough to recover. With a normal race we had the pace to finish second and third."