Sebastian Vettel takes "free" engine penalty

Ferrari have taken advantage of Sebastian Vettel's early qualifying exit to give the German an new engine and gearbox.

Vettel set the slowest time in qualifying after he sustained a suspension failure, leaving his starting last on the 22-car grid.

As a result, Ferrari will mirror what Mercedes did with Lewis Hamilton in Belgium by giving Vettel a sixth internal combustion engine, and MGU-H. The first of those should lead to a 10-place drop and then another five places for each additional replaced element.

However, with Vettel already starting in last place, any penalty becomes meaningless.

He has also taken a new gearbox, again receiving not real penalty.

Despite his dismal qualifying display, Vettel is still confident of a decent finish.

"We've some new tyres, so maybe we can do something with the strategy depending on the safety cars," he said. "It's not impossible to overtake, at least the first couple of cars [ahead of him on the grid] we should be quite a lot quicker, so let's see what we can do."

"And then it could be the safety car puts us back to where we belong," he continued. "I know it will be a long race, it's always two hours, there are a lot of things that can happen, so it will be stupid to say that in starting last you can only hope for one or two points.

"Anything can happen, and that will be the approach I have. I think we can still have a great race."

SG Marina Bay Street Circuit - 17 September 2016

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