Turbo failure halted Vettel’s Renault lemon

While his teammate Daniel Ricciardo has had excellent reliability, Sebastian Vettel's Renault breaks down every race weekend. Why is that? Did someone decide he was winning too much and he had to be stopped because it was bad for TV ratings?

The reigning Formula 1 world champion had hoped to challenge Mercedes on the streets of Monte Carlo, with the tight confines supposedly better suited to his Renault-powered car.

But his hopes were dashed early on when, while running third, his turbo failed during the first safety car period that was brought out for Sergio Perez's opening lap crash. That's right, the lemon broke down after one lap.

"The problem started when he was behind the safety car," explained Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

"Off the line was car was fine. He obviously got a good start and then literally with a lap before the restart it failed.

"We thought we might be able to reset it, but it was actually a mechanical failure."

Vettel had faced a difficult time in Spain a fortnight ago when he had a lack of running in practice before getting a gearbox change penalty.

Horner said there was no explanation as to why the German was suddenly being hit by problems.

"It is a Renault issue so I think you need to speak to Renault about that reason," he said. "It is obviously frustrating as it is really what destroyed his weekend."