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F1: Sebastian Vettel close to taking 6th engine grid penalty

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Khatir Soltani
From GMM

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel's season could be set to go from bad to worse.

With each driver only allowed to run five engines all season, Vettel's fifth Renault V6 is to be fitted to his car at Spa-Francorchamps.

"It was always clear that it would catch up with me sooner or later," he is quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

More problems could mean that at qualifying-crucial races like Singapore, a ten-place grid penalty for an unscheduled engine change will be highly costly.

Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Spa-Francorchamps
Sebastian Vettel could be using his fifth engine at Spa (Photo: WRI2)

So might Red Bull opt to voluntarily install Vettel's sixth engine at Monza, where grid position is not so important?

"We need to examine our options for Singapore and Japan, as we definitely don't want to go ten places back there," he admitted.

Asked about voluntarily taking a penalty at Monza, Vettel added: "That is hypothetical, but we could most likely live with a penalty."


Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
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