• Bahrain Grand Prix

We should have won - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel looked comfortable until his exhaust cracked © Getty Images

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• Bahrain Grand Prix 2010

Sebastian Vettel is confident he would have won the Bahrain Grand Prix had it not been for a cracked exhaust on his Red Bull midway through the race.

Vettel led from pole and looked to be controlling the pace with ease until his car started sounding very rough and his lap times rose dramatically. He immediately lost position to the Ferrari's of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, before falling behind the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton a few laps later. He finished the race fourth.

"It seems something mechanical broke, luckily we could continue and finished fourth, but we should have won today," he said. "It cost us a lot, but we've got 12 important points."

Nevertheless, Vettel said there were plenty of positives to be taken from his team's performance this weekend.

"It's a pity today but it was positive all weekend, except for the exhaust failure," he said. "From Saturday morning onwards, we were one of the quickest cars on track in all conditions. We had control of the race today and we were on top of the strategy - everything was running smoothly. I think at every point I knew how my tyres were, so we kept good control of the tyres and brakes."

His team-mate Mark Webber finished a frustrating eighth, and like Michael Schumacher , he said it was almost impossible to overtake.

"It was a bit of a traffic jam out there," he said. "It was very, very difficult to stay close to the cars in front. It wasn't the most exciting grand prix I've driven - following gearboxes all afternoon - but the world class drivers who were ahead don't normally make mistakes. I tried as hard as I could to make Jenson [Button] and Michael [Schumacher] make mistakes, but it wasn't happening. We have a long championship ahead and the boys are working incredibly hard; we showed last year we can fight, so I'm looking forward to Melbourne."

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Feeds: ESPNF1 Staff

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