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Mercedes had "90% chance of winning"

13:51, 09 Apr 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was very frustrated with the way the Bahrain Grand Prix ended, as the Austrian thinks his team could have and probably should have won in the end.

Valtteri Bottas had first-placed Sebastian Vettel at his mercy in the last few laps, as the Finn was in DRS-range and was driving on much fresher tyres. Wolff, however, refuses to lay the blame on his driver.

"With these cars, it's very difficult to overtake an opponent, and Sebastian is also a very good driver," Wolff explained.

"After the way qualifying went, I probably would have taken second and third place.

"But with the way both Red Bulls and Raikkonen retires, it's very frustrating to lose by just a few metres in the end."

The Austrian team boss explained that Mercedes knew that the medium-hard compound would be the best way to go, and it would've been the winning strategy would the race have lasted one or two laps more, as Bottas was driving two seconds per lap faster than Vettel in the end. "That doesn't count though," Wolff admitted.

After switching to the medium-hard tyres we knew we could catch up with Sebastian, as we knew that Sebastian would either have to pit again to change tyres or that his tyres would not hold up at the end of the race if we pressed him hard enough."

"At that moment, we had a 90% chance of winning, but we drew the short straw in the end."