Vettel had no warning over engine failure

Sebastian Vettel says he was given no warning that his engine was about to expire as his miserable 2020 Formula 1 season continued on Friday.

Vettel has scored only 10 points across the opening four rounds and struggled to 10th place at last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Vettel finished seventh in opening practice for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone but slipped to 14th in the afternoon session, ahead of only the Haas, Williams and Alfa Romeo drivers.

His session came to a premature end when his engine failed with five minutes of the session remaining, with liquid pouring from the SF1000, as he stopped at the exit of Copse.

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“No, no warning, it was very sudden,” he said.

“It was obviously a failure, now we have to see what it is. It will probably take a couple of days as the engine will get shipped back [to Maranello] and analysed.”

Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc placed seventh but was perplexed by the squad’s difficulties on the Medium tyre.

“That’s what’s a bit weird today for us, normally we struggle to use the softer tyres with our car but today was a bit different and we struggle to use the Medium tyre more than the others,” he said.

“We had quite a big step of grip in between the Medium and Soft which is not the case for the others so we need to understand why we were a bit too slow on the Medium.”