Horner: Vettel’s brake disc split in half
Vettel was forced to back off last Sunday when, 15 laps from the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, he suffered severe brake problems, afterward confirming that his left front brake had gone completely. The team launched an investigation into the incident as this was the second time already this season that Vettel experienced brake problems. And although the team has yet to identify the cause of the problem, team boss Christian Horner has revealed that the front left brake disc on Vettel's Red Bull split in half, not something that happens every day of the week.
"The problem was quite bizarre as basically the brake on the left hand side stopped working completely and the disc effectively split in half, straight down the middle of the spline," said Horner.
"You have just got a spacer in there and so he had only got three brakes, so all the bias was towards the rear and he was using mainly the aerodynamics to stop the car and built some huge margin into his braking zones. "With having fitted the option tire at the end of the race on relatively light fuel load he actually did a purple sector in the middle sector with three brakes. "It was ironic as I was joking with Adrian (Newey) the night before about his first car being an Austin Allegro which only had three brake discs and unfortunately in the race Sebastian's car turned out to be similar to that.
"But he managed it incredibly well and to get the car home in third place was a valuable and brave performance by him."