Vettel: Brake issue caused late practice 2 spin

Vettel before it stopped raining

Sebastian Vettel says a brake distribution issue caused his spin during the closing stages of Friday's second practice session in Austria.

Vettel lost the rear of his Ferrari under braking for Turn 2, and slid uncontrollably into the gravel trap, which signaled a Virtual Safety Car.

Vettel, who placed fourth in FP2, but third on the combined timesheets, confirmed the problem after speaking to Ferrari colleagues in the garage.

"We had an issue with the brake distribution," said Vettel, whose incident prevented other drivers from improving as the track dried out.

"It caught me by surprise. But it didn't matter too much."

On his and Ferrari's position, he added: "Every race is an opportunity. It was a decent day. It's not entirely clear where we are, as there was not much running. But it's looking OK."

Kimi Raikkonen, who finished fourth on the combined times, two tenths of a second down on team-mate Vettel, was also reluctant to comment on Ferrari's potential this weekend.

"It's pointless to guess anything; we'll see tomorrow where we are," commented the Finn, who suffered his own off track excursion when the rain arrived during second practice.

"It was not a very clear session with the weather and everything, so it could have been better. We didn't get many laps done with the conditions – it's a bit of an unknown."