Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen believes that neither he nor his teammate Romain Grosjean was ever going to catch Sebastian Vettel during the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Red Bull driver stormed to victory in the fourth race of the season, leaving the Lotus to make up the rest of the podium at the Sakhir circuit.

Following his second-placed finish, Raikkonen feels that he would have struggled to catch the German even if he had started higher up the grid.

"I think overall we did not have the speed to beat Red Bull this weekend," he said.

"On Saturday we could have been a few places higher but we could not have challenged their speed at the front.

"So it was a good result. We got good points and didn't lose too many to Seb."

Raikkonen set the ninth-fastest time during the qualifying session, with Grosjean finishing in 10th place.