Rear tyre delamination the cause of Vettel's front wing failure

The left-rear tyre that delaminated after Vettel spun while battling Lewis Hamilton caused the German's front wing failure, Pirelli has confirmed.

Vettel found himself facing the wrong way after losing the rear of his Ferrari going side by side with Hamilton through Turn 4. As a result of the spin, he sustained heavy damage to all four tyres, with one of them puncturing. 

“I obviously had the spin,” Vettel said after the race. “I thought it was not too bad but during the turn-around I think the rear-left tyre delaminated.

“Pirelli is still searching, apparently, where the rest of the tyre is. Due to that I had a lot of vibrations so when I was going down the straight I had lots of vibrations and that caused the front wing to break.”

The Italian tyre supplier has now confirmed to RaceFans.net that delamination occurred on the left-rear, while his right-front suffered a puncture, which all contributed to the huge vibrations that he had while returning to the pit-lane.

“Vettel had a spin at high speed, which caused big flat spots on all four tyres (and vibrations that were potentially significant enough to remove the front wing).

“The left-rear tyre was subjected to the most load, and this did indeed partially delaminate against the abrasive asphalt in Bahrain. The right-front however was the only tyre that actually punctured following the incident: the other three tyres stayed up.”

Pirelli added that “all of the above was as a direct consequence of the high-speed spin” and “there was no issue with any of the tyres before this happened.”