Vettel given "no warning" to "very sudden" F1 engine failure

Sebastian Vettel says he had "no warning" of the engine failure he suffered in the dying stages of second practice for the Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Vettel’s Ferrari ground to a halt in the latter stages of FP2, with his car leaking oil down the old start-finish straight on the entry to Copse.

Speaking of the failure, Vettel said: “No, no warning, was very sudden, obviously a failure, now we have to see what it is. It will probably take a couple of days as the engine will get shipped back and analysed.”

Vettel was a “little bit happier” with the balance of his Ferrari despite languishing well down the time-sheets.

“I think as I touched on yesterday we tried a couple of things,” Vettel added. “Overall we were a little bit happier but I’m obviously not really any more competitive so we’ll have to have a look.”

Like at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has fared better and looks to be a contender for the top five in qualifying tomorrow.

With tyres being the main topic of conversation at Silverstone, Leclerc says Ferrari needs to improve its performance on the yellow-marked mediums given that the majority of the teams will be looking to progress into Q3 from Q2 on this tyre.

“I think the lack of performance on the medium is where we need to work the most as it is going to be important,” Leclerc added. “I think many cars will try to go through Q2 on the Medium tyres and we need to be competitive on this tyre to have a chance so we need to put our effort onto that.”