Vettel Disqualified for Rules Infringement; Starts from Pit Lane in Abu Dhabi

Sebastian Vettel will start the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi from the pit lane tomorrow after his car was discovered to be without sufficient fuel for technical inspection after the qualifying session. The loss of position takes away the advantage he had over championship contender Fernando Alonso who starts sixth.

Vettel was third quickest in qualifying this afternoon, behind pole sitter Lewis Hamilton and teammate Mark Webber. But during his last hot lap he was ordered to stop the car by his team. Vettel hopped out of the car and went on to post-qualifying activities while the car was taken to tech. It was discovered that the car did not have the mandatory one litre of fuel  for testing. Team principal Christian Horner said, ““During the slow down lap following the final run of Q3, Renault instructed to immediately stop Sebastian’s car on the circuit due to an issue with the fuel system.” After discussions with race stewards, they accepted the explanation “of force majeure for technical reasons” for the car to be stopped, but 850 ml of fuel was pumped out of the car during post-inspection activities an offense against F1 technical rules.

Vettel tried to put a good face on the situation later saying, ““One of the best ski jumpers of all times once said ‘Every chance is an opportunity and as far as we are concerned there are still plenty of chances tomorrow’.”