Sebastian Vettel suffered yet another reliability issue in Australia after a brake failure left him beached in the gravel at turn 13.
This is his second failure in two races, both of which have lost him the win, so instead of 50 points in the championship and a comfortable lead over his rivals, he has just 12.
Although it was a brake failure, the cause of the failure only became clear when Vettel spoke to the official F1 website.
“We had a problem with the brakes on the left front tyre. As I understand it the tyre was not fixed properly and therefore had too much play and damaged the brake disc.”
“It started two laps before – I wanted to pit but the next lap it was improving again so the decision was made to keep me out, and then it was too late…”
When asked if it was a relief that the next race is just a week away, he replied: “To be honest, at this very moment I would like nothing more but to go home – but life goes on.
“It gives a certain satisfaction to know that from my side I couldn’t have made anything different or better and I think until the moment when the trouble started we’d done a great job.”
