Szafnauer says Aston Martin still investigating cause of engine failure, after Vettel brings out red flags in FP1

After a 36 year hiatus, the Dutch Grand Prix returns to the Formula 1 calendar this year, and the drivers were all keen to get plenty of laps under their belt on the reworked Zandvoort circuit in first practice on Friday morning.

Sadly for them, Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin AMR21 had other ideas after it suffered a failure out on track during the session, with the German having no option but to crawl to a halt at the pit lane exit.

FP1 REPORT: Hamilton beats Verstappen in shortened first practice as F1 returns to Zandvoort

He then grabbed a fire extinguisher from a marshal to cool his car, before there was a long 35-minute red flag period as the course officials organised removing his car, to get the session back up and running.

His team boss Otmar Szafnauer said after the session: "We don't have the root cause yet but he reported an engine failure, and we asked him to pull over near a marshal's fence just in case there's a fire.

"It's routine for us to do so when we have an engine failure. It's exactly what he did, but then he also anticipated himself that there may be a potential for a fire, which is why he got the fire extinguisher from the marshal.

"We don't know the root cause yet, like I said. I think the first order of importance is to change the engine so we can get the running in Free Practice 2."