Vettel: Failure cost us the win

**4me2** · 14th March 2010

Vettel: Failure cost us the win

By Simon StrangSunday, March 14th 2010, 14:33 GMT

Sebastian Vettel believes he would have won the Bahrain Grand Prix had he not suffered an apparent probem with his car's exhaust with 20 laps to go.
The German Red Bull driver appeared to be in control of the opening race of the season, having led from the start and maintained his position through the pitstops, until he lost performance due to the problem.

Vettel admitted afterwards that he was disappointed not to have been able to win having been the pace-setter through the weekend: "It's a pity but what can you do?
"All in all it was a positive except the failure this weekend," he added. "Under any conditions from Saturday morning onwards we were the quickest. I think we had very good control of the race, we had a very good strategy, I knew how my tyres were.

"We had quite good control of the tyres and the brakes, everything running smoothly.
"I think it was 15-20 laps to the end I just lost power. I don't know what it was but I think something mechanical broke. Luckily we could continue but we should have won really."

Vettel added that it had been a bitter pill to swallow when he realised that his car was not going to be in a position to win.

"It's not easy," he said. "You are leading, everything is fine and you just have to bring the car home. And then we had the failure and initially you don't know what it is or whether it is going to get worse or better.

"At the end it seemed to kind of recover but it wasn't it great but it cost us a lot. At least we scored 12 important points."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82128

**4me2** · 14th March 2010

Vettel hit by engine, not exhaust issue

Sunday, March 14th 2010, 17:33 GMT

Red Bull Racing has revealed that Sebastian Vettel's chances of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix were hit by an engine problem, and not by an issue with the exhaust as the team initially reported.

Vettel was leading the event from Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa when he reported a loss of power in his Renault engine.

Although the team initially believed the problem was in the exhaust, further analysis has revealed that in fact it was an eletrical problem with the engine, caused by a faulty spark plug.

The team said, however, that there had been no damage to the unit.
After the problem, Vettel dropped three places and finished the race in fourth position while Ferrari went on to score a one-two.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82153