More bad luck for Toro Rosso youngster

Seb Vettel may be talked about as a future world champion, but he must wonder what he has to do to catch a break this season. The 20-year-old German has yet to score a point in five races, and has only made it to the chequered flag once, in Turkey a couple of weeks ago - although he may now wish he hadn’t bothered.

Vettel has received a five-car grid penalty for this weekend’s Monaco GP, simply because Toro Rosso’s new STR3 will use a different gearbox than the one that was used at the Turkish GP. Vettel raced with the STR2B in Istanbul and under 2008 regulations the same gearbox must be used for four races. Vettel’s team-mate Sebastien Bourdais will not face the same penalty because he did not finish the race in Turkey - talk about salt in the wound.

If ever there was a race where you didn’t want to pick up a grid penalty, it’s Monaco, where overtaking is almost impossible. It’s now 99% certain that Vettel will start from the back row of the grid - unless his team decides to run very, very light on fuel in qualifying.

Bonus Vettel video!