Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has claimed Valtteri Bottas winning the Bahrain GP was a near-certainty after switching to a one-stop strategy.

The Finn was left to lead the world champions charge during Sunday's race after teammate Lewis Hamilton started ninth with a five-place gearbox penalty.

He would make the ideal start by splitting the two Ferraris off the line, getting ahead of Kimi Raikkonen into second but it was the pit-stop phase which should have put the race in the 28-year-old's hands.

After Ferrari had seemingly put both cars onto a two-stop strategy, Mercedes put Bottas onto the Medium tyre, switching to a simple one-stopper.

Gaining by almost a second per lap in the final stretch, it did seem inevitable the three-time race winner would get the job done but Vettel rebuffed, just having enough margin to make the DRS ineffective at drawing the Mercedes alongside.

Ultimately, Bottas would finish second, 0.7s behind the Ferrari across the finish line.

“We had won the race already after coming out on the medium behind Sebastian and with a gap we were able to close down,” Wolff was quoted by Crash.net later.

“We knew they would need to stop once again or they would run out of tyre if we were to push them. This was the moment where I would say probably the 90 percent probability was on us winning and we lost that.

“It’s extremely frustrating. It’s not just one reason, there are many more reasons why we should have won.”

With Vettel having taken maximum points from the first two races, the Austrian does see it as two missed opportunities for Mercedes, which could be crucial for the championship battle.

“The points you don’t make are the ones that decide the championship,” he said. “The drivers’ championship, it’s seven points lost for Lewis in Melbourne.

“I don’t think he would have been much better than P3 in Bahrain. It was between Sebastian and Valterri for the race win, Lewis was too far away.

“In the drivers’ championship we lost 7 points, I the constructors’ championship we lost 7 in Melbourne and 7 here so that’s 14 points and that can make a difference at the end.”

Speaking in the press conference after the race, Bottas also expressed his frustration at seeing a great chance at victory go begging.

"Being second with such a close margin and having good pace at 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 by Sky Sports if one more lap would have been sufficient, he added: "I don't want to say 'if and if'.

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