Vettel’s Brazil engine raced twice already in 2010

The engine to be used by Sebastian Vettel in Brazil this weekend has already contested two grands prix, it has emerged.

The German was heading for the lead of the world championship two weeks ago when the Renault unit in his Red Bull suddenly failed.

Renault’s customer programme boss Fabrice Lom revealed on Thursday that the unit to be fitted in Vettel’s RB6 this weekend has contested two previous races.

"It is the engine from Italy and Singapore," confirmed the Frenchman to Auto Motor und Sport.

"It has a mileage of 1066 kilometres," he added.

The failed engine in Korea had completed about 1600 kilometres of its projected 2000 life.

Lom said the failure was a connecting rod in cyclinder 4.