Pirelli has concluded the investigation of Sebastian Vettel’s tyre failure near the end of the British Grand Prix. The sport’s tyre supplier has not finished examining Kimi Raikkonen’s tyre failure, but is excepted to do so by next week.
Vettel suffered a tyre failure at the end of the British Grand Prix, costing him a lot of points in the World Drivers’ Championship battle. His teammate also suffered a failure the lap previous. Both drivers were running the Pirelli P-Zero soft compound tyre at the time of the failure.
Pirelli launched an investigation into the issue and has concluded that a slow puncture was the cause of the failure. Continuing to drive with this underinflated tyre caused it to fail. The official statement from Pirelli reads:
“As appeared clear since Sunday afternoon, a full investigation has now confirmed that the original cause of the failure was a slow puncture. The consequent driving back to the pits on an underinflated and then flat tyre led to the final failure.”
The supplier has said that the cause of Raikkonen’s tyre failure will take a little more time to determine because the damaged tyre shows “less evidence” of the cause. They will conduct further tests at the Pirelli facilities, but expect to find the cause at the start of next week.
