Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff was a disappointed man after seeing Valtteri Bottas come up just short in his attempt to overhaul Sebastian Vettel at the end of the Bahrain GP.

Forced onto a one-stop strategy by Kimi Raikkonen's pit-stop incident, the Finn was closing in on the German by over a second per lap in the final 10 laps of Sunday's race but, ultimately, couldn't quite get close enough coming out of the final corner to use DRS to make a pass.

The eventual margin of victory was 0.699s in the Ferrari driver's favour with the Austrian admitting, in hindsight, Mercedes got it slightly wrong.

"Were we pushing hard enough with Valtteri in the middle? I don’t know, maybe not," he told Sky Sports. "We didn’t know how long the medium would last and I think, with second and third, we have to be happy after yesterday.

A decision to switch to the Medium tyre and focus on a one-stop strategy was what the team thought had got the job done with Vettel and Ferrari committing to a two-stop before the problem for Raikkonen.

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Given the pace advantage which he had late on, Bottas admits failing to complete the job was tough to take.

"Being second with such a close margin and having good pace in the end is extremely disappointing," he admitted.

"I need to still look at everything from the race - if there's anything I could have done better, that we could have done better as a team.

"But anyway it's a second. We need to learn from this and move on - it's still 19 races to go!"

Asked if he thought one more lap would have been enough he added: "I don't want to say 'if and if'," you know," he told Sky Sports.

"The race is 57 laps and Sebastian got to the flag the quickest, so they won."

Lewis Hamilton has pointed to the warmer temperatures and equal engine modes as the reason for Ferrari's pace advantage at the Bahrain GP.

Though the Italian team had looked fastest in practice, many expected the world champions to still be the quickest over a single lap but they had no response to the speed of the Scuderia in qualifying as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen swept the front row, leaving the Silver Arrows third and fourth.

A five-place penalty for a gearbox change will drop Hamilton down to ninth on the grid for the race but in general, the Briton conceded Mercedes simply weren't fast enough.

“Ferrari are just quicker in general everywhere," he told British broadcaster Channel 4. "They’ve been a bit better with their tyres, they always are in hot places like this.”

“I think we come to a hotter circuit and often the gap closes up a little bit. Ferrari’s maybe got an upgrade, their engine mode is easily as good as ours this weekend, as you can see all the straights they’re just as quick if not a bit quicker.

“And when you get to a hot circuit it’s really difficult to keep the temperatures low in the tyres and that’s something they’ve always been good at.”

The question was put to motorsport boss Toto Wolff whether the 2018 car has maintained the same characteristics of what he nicknamed the 'diva' last year and his response was pretty mixed.

"She's not a diva," the Austrian said. "I think the drivers feel that the car is very much together but we just lacked the pace today here.

"In the last years, we always seemed to struggle on particular circuits. Bahrain was one where we were successful in terms of results in the past, but also sometimes it was not trivial to find the right set-up.

"It's interesting that the regulations change, the car's completely different, the tyres change, but it's a little bit within the DNA of each car to have strengths and weaknesses, and it seems that these strengths and weaknesses stay, even though everything else changes."

Nobody was happier after Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix than Pierre Gasly after the Toro Rosso driver scored a stunning fourth place finish.

Having been largely anonymous in his first seven races, the last GP2 champion finally showed his potential in a perfect weekend in the desert, claiming best midfield runner in qualifying and maintaining it in the race moving up after the demise of Daniel Ricciardo.

His P4 wasn't just his first points in Formula 1, it also marked Honda's best finish since returning as an engine supplier in 2015, finishing one place higher than they did at any point with McLaren in the past three seasons.

“It’s unbelievable, sixth in qualifying and fourth in the race. We never expected something like this. I’m super happy, struggling to realise," he said ecstatically.

“Big thanks to the team because the car was fantastic all weekend and today there was an opportunity and we had the car to take this."

What was more impressive is how Gasly was comfortably the best midfield car, claiming fourth by 13 seconds from Kevin Magnussen.

After the disappointment of Australia two weeks prior, it was a performance that even the team is struggling to understand.

“Definitely we made a step this weekend, I don’t know if we will be as fast in other races," the 22-year-old added.

“For now we just need to enjoy as it’s a great day for the team and for Honda and myself.”

Some are now suggesting this result has catapulted the Frenchman to the head of the queue as potential replacements for Ricciardo if he leaves Red Bull and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has certainly taken note.

“That made a man out of him,” the Austrian told Autosport. “His reward is the fourth place. All our drivers have a very good bonus system. This will more than please him.

“I didn’t expect a fourth place that early – but it’s a positive development. It was the target to challenge the midfield with this engine. Not here, but in the first half of the season.”

Fernando Alonso says McLaren had some "negative surprises"  in a difficult Bahrain qualifying session which again saw the British team fail to get a car in Q3.

Instead, the Spaniard and his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne will line up 13th and 14th respectively on the grid after not only being the slowest Renault-powered cars but also, embarrassingly, behind both Honda-powered Toro Rosso's.

Asked where the main negatives were, the former double world champion admitted his McLaren could have been better in all the key areas.

“We know that we are not the strongest on the top speed, braking performance was also not great today [and] traction, I think we struggling a little bit too much,” Alonso said.

“This morning was good also on the hot track and then probably we got too confident with that balance on the hot track.

“Then with the cooler conditions in the evening we had some negative surprises, and unfortunately we are now in a position to start the race that is not ideal.

“But we were not in Q3 in Australia either and then both cars were in the points on Sunday so hopefully we can repeat that,” he added.

Race pace is usually the strength of the Woking-based team and in practice, their long run was faster than all their midfield rivals ahead, even so racing director Eric Boullier admitted the problems on a single lap do need addressing.

“Obviously it’s a bit of a surprise, based on the pace we had in FP3,” Boullier told Sky Sports. “There is a need for a big investigation.

“The balance is fine, obviously there’s a lack of grip, that’s my conclusion for the poor performance, but they (the drivers) don’t report anything wrong.

We need to ask some questions at the factory. Like all of us on the pit wall, to be honest, I’m a bit astonished and we need to understand what happened.”

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have become embroiled in a spat after being involved in a clash during Sunday's Bahrain GP.

Both recovering from lowly grid slots, the two drivers went wheel-to-wheel on the pit straight at the start of Lap 2 with the Red Bull driver using a slipstream to ease alongside the Mercedes.

The Dutchman would then push Hamilton deep with his front wing just touching the rear tyre of Verstappen's car, giving him a puncture before later stopping citing other damage.

The world champion would go on to finish third and would be overheard calling the 20-year-old a "d**head" in the cool down room before the podium but was more restrained in his public comments.

“Ultimately, I had a coming together with Max and it was an unnecessary collision,” said Hamilton. “There needs to be a certain respect between drivers. I need to watch it again, but it didn’t feel like a respectful move.

“It was a silly move for him because he didn’t finish the race and obviously he’s tending to make quite a few mistakes recently.”

The 33-year-old found an unlikely ally when a Dutch reporter questioned him on the word he used immediately after the race with Sebastian Vettel, who hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with Verstappen, jumping in.

“Can I answer that?” the Bahrain race winner said, to which the reporter agreed. “It’s not fair – I don’t know what Lewis did, we’ve all been in that situation. We fight someone and sometimes we go wheel-to-wheel, and it’s close, and we have a lot of adrenaline going.

“We are just racing, we are full of adrenaline and we say these things,” he added. “If I hit you in your face, you are not going to tell me, ‘Sebastian, that wasn’t nice’.

“It’s a human reaction, and sometimes I feel it’s all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these questions trying to make something out of nothing.”

Also Read:

• Bahrain GP: Vettel holds off charging Bottas to claim victory

Verstappen though stood his ground and believed if Hamilton had been the one out of the race as he was, his view would be different too.

“I had a good tow on the straight, the last corner was really good so it allowed me to stay close to Lewis," he explained.

“We got a bit squeezed but from the middle to the end of the corner I was ahead, I then felt a nudge from behind and could feel the puncture and therefore knew the race was likely over.

“In my opinion there was plenty of room for the both of us to go around that corner and to say ‘no action taken’ is a bit harsh as I am now out of the race due to that contact on my left rear," he added.

“If it was the other way around I’m sure he would want it looked into.”

Max Verstappen revealed an unexpected sudden high burst of power was responsible for his crash during Q1 in qualifying for the Bahrain GP.

The Red Bull driver was comfortably through to the second part of the all-important session to decide the grid but opted to do an additional flying lap. It was going through the kink of Turn 2 though when the rear came round and sent him sliding into the barrier on the outside of Turn 3.

As a result, the Dutchman will start Sunday's race from 15th place but afterwards accepted there was nothing he could have done to prevent it.

“I studied the data a bit before I came here [to the interview bullpen], and suddenly we had 150 horsepower increase which was a bit odd because the corner is not flat out," he said.

“Suddenly it spun up the rear tyres quite aggressively and spun. I didn’t anticipate it at all and suddenly 150 horsepower extra and you already think you are on the limit, it is quite a lot."

Though likely frustrated not to be up with teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who will start fourth, Verstappen wasn't too downbeat and is confident of a comeback.

“It should be alright, up to P5 should be alright,” he claimed. “A little bit of luck with a Safety Car would be good.”

As for his Australian partner, Ricciardo was left with mixed feelings about his Red Bull's performance after seeing the Ferraris and Mercedes' just out of reach.

"In a way it was closer than expected," he said, speaking to Sky Sports. "I think to pole it was maybe four tenths or something, that's encouraging. But it's still frustrating to be at the tail end of that."

Also Read:

• Bahrain GP: Vettel leads Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying

The 28-year-old has high hopes that he will better positioned to challenge those ahead over the 58-lap race distance, though.

"Practice and qualifying are okay but Sunday is my favourite day of the week," he joked. "Yesterday our race pace didn't look bad but our car in the second practice wasn't as good as it was in FP1.

"That's encouraging to know that our car will be even better than what we showed yesterday and hopefully puts us in the fight."

The mechanic who suffered a double leg break after being run over by Kimi Raikkonen during a terrible pit-stop has undergone successful surgery at a hospital in Bahrain.

Named Francesco Cigarini, he was waiting to take off the left-rear wheel of the Finn's Ferrari, however, with the tyre still attached, the lights system gave the 2007 world champion the green light to exit his box before he could move clear of the car.

The Italian would suffer fractures both to the fibula and shinbone of his left but in an Instagram post, gave an encouraging update on his condition.

“Surgery OK,” Cigarini wrote. “I have to thank all the people worried about me.

“Nothing else, just a big thanks. Hugs.”

Lewis Hamilton was among several to tweet his thoughts to the Ferrari mechanic with the team later fined 50,000 Euros by the FIA which was five times more than that Haas were given for their double pit-stop failure in Melbourne.

Explaining why though, the stewards said the Scuderia had released a car which "was in a manner endangering team personnel and causing injury".

Also Read:

• Bahrain GP: Vettel holds off charging Bottas to claim victory

Some criticism has been levelled Raikkonen's way for his response to the incident as the walked into the garage while Cigarini was being treated the ground after having to retire from the race.

Commenting later, the 37-year-old wasn't exactly awash with emotion saying: “I go when the light is green. I don’t see what happens behind," he said.

"Unfortunately he got hurt, but my job is to go when the light changes."

Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position from his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen with his final lap as the Scuderia swept the front row at the Bahrain GP.

The German had made a small mistake on his first flying lap but was able to rectify it on his second setting a 1m27.958s to take top spot by just half a tenth from his Finnish partner.

Mercedes got close with Valtteri Bottas only a further 0.023s behind in third leading Lewis Hamilton in fourth with his five-place penalty dropping the world champion to ninth.

That promotes Daniel Ricciardo onto the second row for Red Bull, who was the sole representative for the Milton Keynes outfit after a crash for Max Verstappen in Q1.

Pierre Gasly confirmed Toro Rosso's excellent pace all weekend as the lead midfield runner and will start fifth ahead of Kevin Magnussen on a mixed day for the Haas team.

Nico Hulkenberg will start seventh alongside the man who replaced him at Force India, Esteban Ocon in eighth with Hamilton and Carlos Sainz completing the top 10 in the second Renault.

Brendon Hartley will be very disappointed after missing out on Q3 by less than a tenth of a second in 11th in the second Toro Rosso, however, the Honda-powered team would have both cars ahead of the two McLaren's incredibly.

Fernando Alonso was fortunate just to make it into Q2 and will start 13th with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne 14th. They also had the second Force India of Sergio Perez ahead in 12th.

An eventful Q1 saw Max Verstappen set a fast time before spinning into the barrier on the exit of Turn 3 in his Red Bull, ending his participation and meaning he will start a lowly 15th on the grid.

Another surprise came with Romain Grosjean failing to get out of the drop zone in a Haas car which has looked one of the stronger midfield packages. The Frenchman set exactly the same time as Alonso who made the cut but the Spaniard went through having set that time first.

The two Saubers and two Williams' completed the grid with Marcus Ericsson P17 ahead of Sergey Sirotkin. Charles Leclerc had looked faster than his teammate in practice but spun off at the final corner on his final attempt as Lance Stroll will start last.

Sebastian Vettel held off the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in a tense and exciting final 10 laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

Forced onto a one-stop strategy following a terrible incident in the pit-lane which saw a Ferrari mechanic suffer a double leg break after being run over by Kimi Raikkonen, the German had to nurse his tyres to the end, allowing the Finn to close.

A decision by the Italian team to pit both cars first had enabled Mercedes to commit to a one-stop with Bottas, switching him to the Medium tyre rather than the Soft being used by Vettel, but despite gaining by over a second per lap in the closing stages, he couldn't quite use DRS to draw alongside and attempt a pass.

Lewis Hamilton was involved in a controversial incident with Max Verstappen at the start of Lap 2, as the Dutchman passed him at the first corner only for light contact to be enough to cause a puncture and other damage to his Red Bull, forcing him to retire.

Moments later, the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo ground to a halt on the exit of Turn 8 after his engine shut down while running fourth in a disastrous day for the Milton Keynes outfit.

A Virtual Safety Car was required to clear away the Australian's car and at the restart, Hamilton used DRS and a double slipstream to pass three cars on the pit straight, jumping up from his starting position of ninth to sixth.

Soon, the world champion was upto fourth and would benefit from the unfortunate incident in the pit-lane involving Raikkonen to take the final spot on the podium.

The undoubted star of the race was Pierre Gasly in fourth for Toro Rosso as the Frenchman eased clear of the midfield to score not only his first points in Formula 1 but also Honda's best result since returning as an engine supplier.

The Red Bull junior ended the race 13 seconds clear of Kevin Magnussen in fifth, with the Dane narrowly averting disaster with teammate Romain Grosjean after his second pit-stop.

But it was a good result for the Haas team and a good boost in confidence after losing out on the double points finish in Australia, even if Grosjean's race was ruined by his bargeboard disintegrating with pieces falling off.

Nico Hulkenberg led the two McLaren's in sixth, seventh and eighth, Fernando Alonso leading teammate Stoffel Vandoorne as they made up for a difficult qualifying.

Marcus Ericsson was another standout performer in ninth for Sauber, using a one-stop strategy to score his first top 10 finish in 50 races and another indication of how close the midfield battle is in 2018.

Esteban Ocon also managed Force India's first point of the season in 10th. 

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff claims the reported $150m budget cap put forward for 2021 is "much too low" for Formula 1's top teams.

On Friday, the sport's bosses laid out their vision for a cheaper, simpler F1 in a meeting with all 10 teams and the FIA, agreeing that details discussed will be "kept behind closed doors".

One proposal that was leaked, however, was a much talked about cap on spending which Liberty Media hope can lead to a levelling up of the currently very unequal financial playing field.

The reaction by Mercedes and Ferrari was the most anticipated after both threatened to pull out if they didn't agree with the new regulations, and it does appear, for now, the two sides remain some way apart.

"That number needs to be seen in perspective because marketing is excluded, drivers are excluded, lots of other activities are excluded," Wolff told Sky Sports.

"There is lots that we do as a manufacturer where we do work for the power unit that is for the benefit of customers as well.

"So that number is much too low for the big teams, but if you look into the detail we need to work with Liberty and find a compromise."

The Austrian's biggest concern is the impact of a $150m cap would be felt hardest on the staff at those teams which would have to downscale their operation.

"My utmost priority is protecting our structure and our people," he said. "We have to consider that we have been here a long time, the same with Ferrari, and Red Bull, and some of the bigger structures.

"You need to lay it out and say 'this is our situation, how can we achieve success for F1, how can we cap costs, how can we achieve a sustainable business model' without having any hardship on anybody."

Also Read:

• Details emerge as Liberty reveals F1 vision for 2021
• Hamilton watching Liberty proposals as he ponders F1 future
• Brawn fires back at "personally offensive" claims by Ferrari chairman Marchionne

One area for optimism on Mercedes' side though, is a greater sense of clarity on what it is Liberty is trying to achieve with their vision.

"Before it was all pretty much in the dark, now we know what the position is and we can work towards that position," said Wolff.

"Now at least you can properly assess this and say what do we like, what do we not like, what's feasible and what's not and how we will achieve compromise, that will be our main priority.

"As long as we have confidence that there are good ideas kicking in that will grow revenue, that will grow our audiences and preserve the ones we already have, we are in.

"We want to preserve F1's traditions. It's a high-tech sport, the best racing drivers in the best machines. As long as we can maintain that with a solid business model, we are happy."