Oil issues end Hartley’s race

When Brendon Hartley noticed his Formula One car’s high oil consumption, he knew his day was likely to end early.

The Kiwi was called to the pits on his 40th lap at the Brazilian Grand Prix after battling the oil consumption issue for much of the race, leading to his second consecutive engine-related retirement in F1.

Hartley was 17th when engine issues, which have plagued Toro Rosso over the last month, flared up yet again in the 71-lap race at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, won by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel yesterday.

It was the end to a tough weekend for Toro Rosso who had engaged in a war of words with engine supplier Renault through the media during the practice sessions over who was to blame for the persistent issues. Hartley was also forced to pull out in Mexico two weeks ago when his engine caught fire meaning his 13th place on debut at the Untied States Grand Prix is his only finish in three F1 starts.

The Mexico race was due to an oil fire and Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost confirmed oil issues were again to blame in Brazil.

‘‘Unfortunately, we had to call in Brendon because of a high oil consumption which we need to investigate and which unfortunately didn’t enable him to finish the race,’’ he said.

Hartley admitted he was not surprised when the call came to park up in the garage.

‘‘We knew that there was a problem early on in the race, as I had to start transferring oil – I didn’t want to ask, but I had the feeling that we were not going to get to the end and we didn’t,’’ he said.