Lewis Hamilton bemoaned a "pretty terrible" Japanese Grand Prix as he dropped away off the podium positions in the latter stages of Sunday's race to finish sixth.
Hamilton benefitted from a mid-race Safety Car and overtook George Russell on the restart to go into third but was unable to hold off the Mercedes and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Lando Norris then overtook Hamilton late on as the seven-time world champion struggled for pace, seeing the chequered flag in the same sixth place he started.
"Pretty terrible ultimately because I was P3 and I ended up going backwards. I just need to understand where I was losing all the power," he told Sky Sports F1.
"I had a real lack of power, particularly in the second stint, but even at the beginning I couldn't keep up with people just through a lack of power.
"I don't understand this. I'm full gas, managing where I'm asked to manage and for some reason just lacking power, so I need to figure out if there's something wrong with the car or not. Still, we got some points."
It was Hamilton's trickiest weekend so far after finishing fourth in Australia and claiming his first Ferrari podium at the Chinese Grand Prix.
But, the 41-year-old trailed team-mate Leclerc throughout the weekend in Suzuka and was left confused about his lack of pace.
"I love being in Japan, I've generally enjoyed driving. It's just, as I said, I just really got trying to understand," he said.
"I had a really good stint of managing the tyres and then just didn't have the pace to just keep up. And it's never fun when you're just barely holding onto a pack. And when I got the fresh tyres, I still couldn't.
"I just couldn't. Just power-wise, I couldn't stay ahead of people, which was really confusing. I need to understand."
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