It was his best finish of the season so far.
Sebastien Vettel led from the start in his Ferrari, with the Duncraig driver second in the Red Bull Renault and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen third.
The trio started and finished in that order, with Ricciardo just 1.4 seconds behind Vettel after the 61 laps of the twisty city street circuit and Raikkonen 15 seconds astern. Ricciardo also set the fastest lap.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWThe Ferrari-Red Bull-Ferrari outcome was a refreshing change from the dominance of Mercedes-Benz.
Championship points leaders Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg qualified fifth and sixth and Hamilton had his first retirement of the season when his car lost power at half-distance. Rosberg ended up fourth, well behind the leading trio.
Ricciardo was clearly the crowd favourite, cheers for the charismatic West Australian much louder than for the German and Finn sharing the podium.
“We came here pretty confident. The pace was good and it’s nice to capitalise here,” Ricciardo said.
The next Grand Prix is at the fast-flowing Suzuka circuit in Japan – which favours the power of the Mercedes.