From GMM
As darkness fell at Albert Park on Sunday night, Red Bull Christian Horner would not confirm that brake failure pitched pole sitter and race leader Sebastian Vettel out of the Australian grand prix.
After the spark plug problem in Bahrain, German Vettel, 22, initially told his team over the radio - and then reporters in the paddock - that he thought his left-front brake disc had failed.
But team boss Horner would not confirm the problem. "Sebastian unfortunately retired with what looks like a wheel related issue, which certainly cost him a comfortable race win today," said the Briton.
And Mark Webber was formally reprimanded by the stewards for running into Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - who already had two front wing failures at Albert Park - confirmed that his third wing failure on the first lap seems to have been the result of earlier contact. The Japanese took out Williams' Nico Hulkenberg in the heavy shunt that followed.
UPDATE:
Red Bull technicians finally identified the problem that ruined Sebastian Vettel's charge to victory. It was confirmed that a damaged wheel mounting due to a vibrating wheel nut was the cause of another foiled run from pole position.
The report said the garage inspection of the RB6 took just 15 minutes, involving head of engineering Ian Morgan, designer Adrian Newey and their boss Christian Horner.
Suspecting a problem with the fitting of the wheel in the pitstop, Horner said: "In 6000 kilometres of testing nothing like this happened."
That is small comfort for Vettel, who is now 25 points behind Fernando Alonso's early title lead. "Of course it is annoying. Yet another defect," he said. "I could be going to Malaysia with 50 points."
As darkness fell at Albert Park on Sunday night, Red Bull Christian Horner would not confirm that brake failure pitched pole sitter and race leader Sebastian Vettel out of the Australian grand prix.
After the spark plug problem in Bahrain, German Vettel, 22, initially told his team over the radio - and then reporters in the paddock - that he thought his left-front brake disc had failed.
But team boss Horner would not confirm the problem. "Sebastian unfortunately retired with what looks like a wheel related issue, which certainly cost him a comfortable race win today," said the Briton.
And Mark Webber was formally reprimanded by the stewards for running into Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the race.
Meanwhile, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - who already had two front wing failures at Albert Park - confirmed that his third wing failure on the first lap seems to have been the result of earlier contact. The Japanese took out Williams' Nico Hulkenberg in the heavy shunt that followed.
UPDATE:
Red Bull technicians finally identified the problem that ruined Sebastian Vettel's charge to victory. It was confirmed that a damaged wheel mounting due to a vibrating wheel nut was the cause of another foiled run from pole position.
The report said the garage inspection of the RB6 took just 15 minutes, involving head of engineering Ian Morgan, designer Adrian Newey and their boss Christian Horner.
Suspecting a problem with the fitting of the wheel in the pitstop, Horner said: "In 6000 kilometres of testing nothing like this happened."
That is small comfort for Vettel, who is now 25 points behind Fernando Alonso's early title lead. "Of course it is annoying. Yet another defect," he said. "I could be going to Malaysia with 50 points."