Ferrari say a wheel rim issue caused Vettel's testing crash

A wheel rim issue caused Sebastian Vettel's crash in pre-season testing, Ferrari said on Thursday.

The crash at turn three of the Circuit de Catalunya on Wednesday morning was the first setback for the 2018 runners-up with a new SF90 car that has otherwise looked impressively quick and reliable.

"After thorough checks we found that Seb's off yesterday was due to a rim issue," a Ferrari spokeswoman said.

"The rim had been damaged a few seconds before by an impact with a foreign object."

Vettel's young Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc was testing the car on Thursday with the four-times world champion German, who was not hurt in Wednesday's incident, due to return for the final day on Friday.

The season-opening race in Australia is on 17 March.