• British Grand Prix

Frustrated Vettel hit by gearbox failure

Sebastian Vettel ultimately saw Fernando Alonso take 15 points out of his championship lead © Getty Images

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• Race:
• British Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel said a gearbox failure cost him a chance of victory in the British Grand Prix and it was frustrating to retire through no fault of his own.

With Lewis Hamilton's puncture having handed Vettel the lead, he looked set for victory as he held a two second advantage over Nico Rosberg with 11 laps remaining. However, he lost drive approaching the final corner and was forced to retire, saying after the race that the only positive is the short wait for a chance to recover in Germany.

"We had a gearbox issue, I lost fifth gear so when I was upshifting in to sixth, fifth said goodbye and damaged the rest of the gearbox," Vettel said.

"We just lost the race by a couple of laps but there's nothing I could have done better. So it's always frustrating but I'm not blaming the guys or the team; these things always happen, you never want them to happen but fortunately we've got the next race coming up next week so we can try and do it again."

With a number of tyre failures hitting drivers during the race, Vettel said it was even more disappointing to have avoided any issues before his retirement.

"It was difficult to judge because obviously I saw Lewis suffering a puncture and then heard we had some other people had the same problem. We obviously tried to avoid kerbs as much as we could and fortunately we didn't have any damage on both cars. It's disappointing that a couple of laps from the end and a couple of laps from the podium to be out of the race."

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