While disappointed not to have won in Bahrain, Red Bull's Christian Horner insists that Seb Vettel's fourth place is good start to the season.
The young German looked on track to secure a season-opening race victory before an electrical vault on the 33rd lap caused him to lose power dramatically for the rest of the race, with the Red Bull eventually limping home in fourth place.
Despite this, the Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes that the team can take a lot from their performance in Bahrain.
"We had fantastic pace in qualifying and the race and Sebastian was controlling the race very well until lap 33 when he had a sudden loss of power," Horner told the official Formula One website.
"Even with this misfortune we had demonstrated that we have a quick car and P4 is still valuable in the championship.
"True, ultimately it is very frustrating, but we've got the reassurance that we've got the pace. This is something that we can build on," he explained.
While Fernando Alonso took the race win, Horner believes that Vettel was still the best driver on the grid.
"In my opinion, yes," said the Briton.
"What he managed to do is unbelievable. He had corner speeds that were almost beyond gravity. He was driving flawlessly, without even the slightest mistake. Sebastian had controlled the race and after lap three we were able to reduce on fuel because it was not necessary.
"Alonso did three laps to catch-up but was falling back again after those laps because of the tyres. Had it been possible to blank lap 33 the trophy would have been his."
Using Bahrain as a yardstick, it appears that Red Bull and Ferrari certainly are the early pace setters, but Horner insists it's too early to make any judgments regarding the pecking order going forward.
"It is still very early to draw conclusions on the standings," said Horner.
"In the next couple of weeks it will be a case of how fast the development is pushed forward by all the teams," he concluded.
