- Malaysian Grand Prix
Vettel's concerns related to performance not reliability
ESPNF1 Staff
April 2, 2010
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Sebastian Vettel is putting on a brave face over the RB6's reliability © Getty Images
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- Malaysian Grand Prix - Free Practice Two
Sebastian Vettel has admitted he is not 100% happy with the Red Bull heading into qualifying, but said his concerns were performance related rather than anything to do with reliability.
After Vettel missed out on wins in Bahrain and Australia due to faults with the car, further question marks over the Red Bull's reliability were raised during Friday practice in Malaysia. Vettel complained of a lack of acceleration in the first session and suspected a problem with the power steering in the second, but more worryingly, his team-mate Mark Webber stopped on track with an engine failure. Vettel insists his issues were nothing to be concerned about and said his attention had instead been drawn by pace-setter Lewis Hamilton and third-placed driver Nico Rosberg
"Some small issues for me today, but nothing big," he said. "Mark unfortunately had to stop and couldn't finish the practice, it looks like his engine went. I wasn't 100% happy today, I think we still need to get a little bit quicker. The McLarens and the Mercedes look quick and Ferrari have a decent long run pace, so we'll have to see where we are. This circuit is one of the tougher ones here due to the hot and humid conditions."
Mark Webber revealed that his engine failure was on a unit with high mileage but said prior to his retirement he had been happy with the car.
"It was the engine," he said. "You never want your Friday disturbed and today's problem cost us quite a bit of track time, but the car felt pretty good in the quick stuff and also at low speeds. It's never ideal to lose an engine, but we did, although it was quite high mileage. It's good that Vettel's up there, but it's where we expected to be, it would have been nice to feel the option tyres today, but we'll have to do that tomorrow."
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