Ferrari relieved to show true potential

"I think the sense of relief is connected to the fact that we really showed what is our potential.

"We were strong all weekend, very good pace on both tyre specs and that is, for us, the main thing, that is positive," Domenicali told reporters after the race.

Ferrari endured their worst start to a season since 1992 in Melbourne, with both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa retiring with engine problems.

Raikkonen bounced back in strong fashion today, clinching a dominant victory.

Ferrari looked set for a one-two finish until Massa spun out of the race on lap 31.

The team said Massa had clouted the kerb on the exit of Turn 6, stalling the car's aerodynamics and meaning he had too much downforce on the front when he started to turn in. That meant the Brazilian lost the rear end of his car.

Despite Massa's retirement, Domenicali was delighted with today's result.

"Honestly, we are very happy in a way, because of course want to show the reaction of Ferrari," added Domenicali. "After a very different weekend in Australia, that was not really unfortunately our standard or it was something that was difficult to digest, first of all, from us.

"So I'm very happy because we show that the team can do a great job. I think the best thing that I have seen is that we kept cool and calm as we are normally, without softening, in a negative way, the pressure that is normal when you have such a difficult start. But that's the main reason why I'm happy, to be honest."

Despite their dominant win, Domenicali is under no illusions and he reckons rivals McLaren will be a force to be reckoned with again in Bahrain in two weeks' time.

"I think that for sure it's exactly the same feeling as we said after Australia, when everyone said McLaren are in another world and we said OK, they did a great race no doubt but here we are and we will see that they have not really had a great weekend, but this doesn't say that they are like that," he added.

"For sure they behaved differently, they didn't have a great weekend in terms of performance but for sure they will be very strong in Bahrain, and what I can say is that for sure we have seen that also BMW had a great weekend and they are there.

"We need to respect them and we will for sure... they will be in the middle of the field for sure in order to take points from us, from McLaren, so we need to have a lot of respect for them."