Mar.18 (GMM) The Renault engine with which Sebastian Vettel limped his Red Bull to fourth place in Bahrain last weekend will be fitted to the German’s car at the beginning of the forthcoming Australian grand prix.
A faulty spark plug in the unit caused the 22-year-old, who had started from pole position, to relinquish his lead to all three eventual podium sitters at Sakhir on Sunday.
It is the believed the engine itself was not damaged, and it will be used in Friday free practice in Melbourne, according to Germany’s Auto Bild Motorsport.
Current F1 rules permit the use of eight engines for the entire 2009 season, with no engine needing to be used for qualifying and the race at consecutive events.
Red Bull is therefore expected to fit a fresh engine for Vettel ahead of qualifying in Melbourne, with the Bahrain unit to return to the RB6 probably at a less arduous event in 2010.
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OUR OFFICIAL FORMULA 1 DISCUSSION FORUM PARTNER











They are all honest.. Why lie? I saw the bump that Kimi hit in Monza didn’t you?
4Mula… Yeah, we know how honest all of F1 is about admitting what is wrong with their cars. If the engine was that crippled, they wouldn’t use it in Melbourne. This forum is for opinions of the articles. And believe it or not, not everybody would agree with yours. (or mine) so get over it.
Twiinz… Dunno if you watched the race or not but f1 engines do not sound beautiful when fully fueled and like broken lawnmowers when they are running lean. He stopped at the line to prevent any further damage. Your post is useless.
As I said earlier this week, It wasn’t the spark plug. The reason RB was on pole and pulled away was that he was lighter than the others. The Renault is more efficient than other engines. The real reason that Vettel slowed was that RB got the amount of fuel needed for a whole race wrong. When they figured it out, they slowed him down. Even though he ran 1/3 of the race slow, he ran out of gas at the line. hmmmm?