Pirelli blames Vettel crash on cold conditions

Paul Hembery has denied an early flaw with Pirelli's 2017 tyres may already have been uncovered. In 2013, F1's official supplier came under a bright spotlight when several tyres 'exploded' during the British grand prix. Pirelli's Mario Isola said this week: "The incident at Silverstone was a single episode, the cause was identified and we fixed the problem in seven days."

But now, Pirelli has developed tyres that will have to go through corners up to 40kph faster, to accompany the radical aerodynamic rule changes for 2017. Last week at Ferrari's own Fiorano circuit, Sebastian Vettel was testing the 2017 rain tyres when he slid into a barrier at speed.

Pirelli F1 chief Paul Hembery told the German broadcaster RTL: "It was very cold on that day -- it was extremely abnormal conditions that made testing very difficult and delicate. It was only 4 degrees, which is unusual," he added. Asked if the tyre had suffered a problem, Hembery answered: "Again, to get the tyres to work in those temperatures is the problem." (GMM)