Verstappen believes brake failure cost him a podium

Max Verstappen's Bahrain Grand Prix ended prematurely after just 11 laps, when a rear brake failure sent the Red Bull flying off the track.

Verstappen crashed out in turn 4, running over the gravel trap and ending up making contact with the tyre barrier. Verstappen wasn't hurt in the incident.

Up to that point, Verstappen had been happy with how things had been going. He got the better of his team mate Daniel Ricciardo through the first corner, and stopped Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen from getting past him in turn.

“I had a good start," Verstappen recalled. "Kimi struggled a bit off the line so I passed him straight away. Then I went round the outside at turn one and overtook Daniel which put me in a good position.

Over the opening stint of the race, the top six were closely packed. They were all running within DRS range of the car in front, even if none of them were able to get past.

"I could keep up with the leaders," Verstappen said. "The car was performing really well on the tyres and the pace was good."

Vettel victorious as Hamilton toils to second in Bahrain

When Sebastian Vettel decided to pit from second place, Verstappen followed suit - but moments later went flying off the track.

"I think we made the right call with the pit stop to try and undercut the two Mercedes," he insisted. "We would have ended up second behind Sebastian at that point.

"But then the rear brakes failed on lap 12.

"It was race over," he sighed. "Basically lost the rear brakes as soon as I hit the pedal. The pedal went really long and I couldn't brake any more.

"These things are all a part of racing," he continued. "There are definitely positives to take away from today.

"The car was working a lot better here than the previous two races so it’s just an unfortunate ending. We could have scored some really good points.”

GALLERY: All the action from the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.