Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has revealed a cylinder failure led to Charles Leclerc's loss of power at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Monegasque was on course for a first Formula 1 win on Sunday, after recovering from a steady start to pull more than 12 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton.

That was until an engine issue left his Ferrari dramatically down on power on the straights, allowing both Mercedes to catch and pass Leclerc, dropping him to third.

"We are checking the engine now so we do not have yet a clear explanation of what happened," Binotto said to Autosport post-race.

"It is an engine problem. We had lost combustion on one cylinder but [the reason is yet] to be understood.

"The engine will go back to Maranello for careful checks because when something like this happens you need to take your time to do your checks carefully," he explained.

"But the engine was running at the end of the race so it is still able to run.

"We will use it certainly on the Friday in China and we have an entire Friday to assess its behaviour, its functionality and its performance."

Also Read:

• Disappointed Leclerc admits Safety Car saved P3 in Bahrain
• Hamilton hails 'great result' in Bahrain but knows Mercedes got lucky

Until Binotto's confirmation, the belief had been that the ERS had been the cause based on a radio message sent to Leclerc.

However, the team boss and technical director dispelled that theory.

"I don't know where the rumours came from, there was nothing wrong with the MGU-H," he said

"When something like that happens you try to move on the recovery in terms of any combustion control mapping that you may do, at least you try to change mappings.

"You try to see if there is any way to make it better. That was not the case today so we had to manage the race.

"It has been a brave decision to continue racing in those conditions. But in the end, it was a third place that was important so probably the right decision."

 As for whether the cylinder failure risks leaving Leclerc with just two internal combustion engines for the rest of the season, Binotto was calm.

"It is a single problem that will be easily addressed," he said. "It is not related to the way we are using the engine or the mapping or whatever.

"It has to be a single component failure that we will find out."