Vettel to start Malaysian GP last after engine trouble

With Ferrari having proved to be so strong in practice, Vettel had gone into the qualifying day as a clear favourite for a top slot on the Sepang grid.

But Vettel’s day turned quickly when a suspected electrical problem in final free practice cut his running short and forced a late engine change.

Although Ferrari was able to fit Vettel’s fourth and final power unit of the season ahead of qualifying, a fresh problem hit him during his first attempt at a lap in Q1.

Vettel's engine appeared to stutter as he said over the team radio that he suspected he had lost his turbo – but he was able to make it back to the pits.

Mechanics began working on the car and, although it appeared at one point he was going to head back out on track to try to get through the session, in the end the team ran out of time.

On a weekend when Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes appeared to be on the back foot, Vettel now faces an uphill task to not lose further ground to his title rival who is 28 points clear.

“Obviously I lost power, just after sector one, and then limped back,” said Vettel. “We were planning [to go back out again] but obviously we have live telemetry on the car so as soon as the engine is running we see all the pressures and temperatures etc, and I guess something wasn’t there, we couldn’t fix it, so it made no sense to go back out.

“We need to see now what was the problem, but we managed to do the change successfully in time. We thought we would be late, but we made it, so the guys did a miracle today. They have worked like crazy today. They fixed it up so quickly. It’s a shame that we couldn’t get out and get it where it belongs from them.

“It’s not ideal, not what you want, especially on a day where you feel you’ve got it in you, you’ve got it in the car, but unfortunately we won’t be able to prove that.

“Tomorrow should be a little more exciting then. It’s a shame, because the car is quick and I think today we could have got pole, or have a word at least.

“You never know, and [the race] is fairly straightforward – we’ve saved some tyres, which helps us. For sure the starting position doesn’t help, but you never know what can happen tomorrow. So I’m fairly open minded, focus on the race and not what it means for the points. Step by step.”