Nico Rosberg is adamant he could have held on to second position in Bahrain if it were not for a brake issue he suffered in the closing laps.
Kimi Raikkonen chased down Rosberg in a scintillating final stint on the soft tyre, which set up the prospect of a thrilling late fight for second. However at the start of the penultimate lap Rosberg ran deep at Turn 1, which allowed Raikkonen by, as he suffered a brake-by-wire problem also encountered by team-mate Lewis Hamilton late on.
Though it seemed like Raikkonen had the pace to get past Rosberg regardless, Rosberg believes he could have held the Finn at bay.
"It was disappointing to lose second place two laps from the end but the pedal just went straight down without any resistance. Without that problem I could have held Kimi off for sure because his tyres were quite destroyed at that point.
It was a disappointing end to a superb race for Rosberg, who showed great aggression early in the race to pass both Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel after dropping to fourth at Turn 1.
"Other than that it was quite an enjoyable race, and very exciting in the beginning to be able to pass the red cars which gave me particular pleasure. I really liked the car today and told the guys after the start that it really felt good. So I went for it, and I had to of course because I was fourth and had to get past the red cars to try to chase down Lewis. I tried my best but in spite of a similar pace, it just wasn't possible."