Vettel's stunned by COTA DNF: 'No idea what happened'

Sebastian Vettel was mystified at his retirement in the United States Grand Prix, having suffered a dramatic suspension failure after just eight laps at the Circuit of the Americas.

Both Vettel and Charles Leclerc suffered poor starts to the race, but the German's was particularly troublesome as he dropped from second on the grid to seventh.

Vettel said he simply had no grip whatsoever, but had just started to get used to how his car was handling, until the rear-right suspension snapped.

"I had no contact but just wanted to make sure they go through the footage again," Vettel told Sky Sports.

"I just had really poor grip. I was struggling to get the tyres to work. I had a poor feeling straight away, it took a few laps to get the tyres to work.

"From there, I was just about settling into a rhythm, had issues in the right-hand corners mostly.

"I had to get used to it and then the suspension failed."

Ferrari told Leclerc to avoid the kerbs at Turn 8 after Vettel's failure, but the German said he had no clue if that was the answer to his incident.

"I had no idea what it was so that precaution," he added. "We've had enough running without any trouble so I don't know what happened there."

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