Sebastian Vettel’s bad luck continued on Saturday as he failed to set a time in the final Q3 shoot-out due to a gearbox issue, compounding a so far disappointing weekend for the champion.
Vettel completed just four laps on Friday thanks to an electrical problem which ruled him out of the second practice completely.
He then stopped on-track at turn three during qualifying, causing a red flag, and bringing an end to his session earlier than he had hoped.
Describing what happened, Vettel said that he initially lost second gear, which would explain why he pulled over in the pits to allow team-mate Daniel Ricciardo through, before exiting the pits himself in the belief he’d be able to complete a lap without second.
“I’m quite disappointed. I didn’t get much time in the car at all this weekend,” he said on Saturday.
“Obviously a gearbox issue stopped us running in Q3. I left the garage and I lost drive in second gear. It was clear there was a problem, but I still had third gear, so I thought I’d manage the lap without second gear. Unfortunately by Turn 1 I had lost all the other gears.”
He described the situation as “disappointing” and “boring” after a wave of reliability troubles have hit the German this season.
“There’s not much I can do. Of course it’s a bit disappointing, and now a bit boring. We’ve had all sorts of problems [this year].”
Despite starting tenth, he’s hopeful of a good result on Sunday.
“We still managed to get into Q3, so we’re 10th I guess. Anything can happen tomorrow – hopefully there’s no damage to the gearbox.”
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