Steiner "amazed" by Haas' sudden loss of pace

After another strong showing in qualifying at Sakhir at the weekend, the team had high hopes that it could add to its points tally on Sunday.

But an inability to switch on the tyres left Kevin Magnussen tumbling down the order, while Romain Grosjean's race was wrecked thanks to a second corner clash with Lance Stroll.

Reflecting on the difficult race, Steiner said there was no explanation for where the team's pace had disappeared to.

"We have no idea what happened, so I actually should be more down," he explained "But I am not even upset, because I just... I am just amazed.

"More amazed than upset, because after the qualifying we had, and then ending up with the race and not knowing why the pace just was lost overnight, it's so weird."

Steiner said that the only positive thing to come out of the situation was that the team had a test in Bahrain this week to try to get a better understanding of what the problem is.

"We can test here Tuesday and Wednesday, so at least we have got a chance to try to find out what is happening and to get a good picture of it.

"On the other side nobody overtook us in the points standings, so you know at least the damage wasn't too big. I mean by no means I am happy with the damage, but the damage isn't too big."

Steiner said Haas also needed to properly look in to why its top speed on the straights was not as good as its opposition.

"It seems to me as well that our straight line speed, we weren't shining," he explained. "But it's always difficult.

"With straight line speed you need to do analysis. On the first glimpse I was the same as Kevin, [who thought that] it's slow. But with the DRS you need to do a proper study of who had DRS, who didn't have DRS, and when we were overtaking, when we were behind.

"You need to get the proper numbers before you can jump in to a conclusion. But I couldn't see us being the fastest on the straight."

Additonal reporting by Khodr Rawi