May 6 (GMM) Championship leader Sebastian Vettel crashed heavily at Istanbul's daunting Turn 8 corner during a wet opening practice session on Friday.

The impact caused significant damage to his RB7 bearing the number 1, and he told his engineers by radio there was "some water on the exit. There was nothing I could do".

The incident caused the 90-minute session to be red-flagged with just over 17 minutes to run.

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