Vettel suffers power unit problem in Singapore practice - Red Bull prepare for a ten place penalty for the defending champion
Published by Christine
Sebastian Vettel is almost certain to pick up a ten place grid drop at some point during the remainder of the season, after the Red Bull driver suffered yet another power unit issue during practice in Singapore.
The defending champion wasn’t planning to race the engine he was running in free practice, but he probably wasn’t also planning to end up pulling to a halt at the end of the session with a mechanical failure. Although he doesn’t have to take the penalty yet, Renault believe it’s unlikely he can get enough mileage out of the remaining power units so at some point, he’ll have to take on a sixth and thus generate a grid drop.
Meanwhile, Vettel wasn’t the only one struggling in Singapore. Kimi Räikkönen had a brake fire, Max Chilton also had to stop running due to a small fire. Pastor Maldonado suffered a hefty crash during the second session, ending up side on in the barriers. Nico Rosberg had an odd incident in which the glass was threatening to fall out of his right hand wing mirror. He grabbed it before it fell, and threw it away himself.
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the first session, with Lewis Hamilton regaining the top spot in the second.
