Reliability hitch on runway as Vettel jets to China
The 22-year-old German was safely aboard an Airbus A340 on a runway at Zurich Airport, bound for Shanghai, when the pilots abandoned takeoff due to a fault in one of the four engines.
The plane and its passengers, including the photographer Mark Sutton and many members of the Swiss-based Sauber team, were returned to the gate for a more than four-hour delay.
Vettel, who won the most recent grand prix in Malaysia, is third in the world championship standings, just two points behind the leader Felipe Massa.
After winning at Sepang, the German dismissed claims that early reliability problems for Red Bull were putting the title out of reach.
"We are just here to race. Racing cars are built on the limit and sometimes something breaks. We carry on and we've proven that we can come back," he said.