Spain: Vettel thinks he can avoid the 5-place penalty
After his problem during the Spanish Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying, Sebastian Vettel believes he will not be penalized because his gearbox was not affected.
Victim of an issue during Q3 of the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, Sebastian Vettel stated, upon exiting his car, that he did not know what to expect: « Today, I don’t yet know what the cause was. I hope there’s no damage to the gearbox, otherwise it will mean another penalty tomorrow. »
« In Q3, I left the pits and engaged first gear to start. When I shifted to second, I lost power, but I still had third gear, so I decided to continue because it’s possible to do a lap without second gear here. But in turn 1, I got stuck in fifth and couldn’t upshift or downshift. So I lost power and had to stop, » he explained to our colleagues from Crash.net during a press briefing.
Despite his initial concerns, it appears that the problem is related to the transmission, and the German does not expect a 5-place penalty—normally given in the event of a gearbox failure—because the gearbox itself is not damaged, according to Autosport.
More information to follow…
