Red Bull's brake supplier Brembo has denied that a failure of its system was to blame for Sebastian Vettel's Australian Grand Prix retirement.

The German was leading when a wheel problem ended his race on lap 26.

"Vettel's exit was not caused by the braking system. The torque drive between the front left axle and wheel was lost," Brembo said in a statement.

"The wheel nut was correctly tightened at the pitstop as well as other possible causes of the fault."

As at the season-opening race in Bahrain, Vettel qualified in pole position, and he did well in wet conditions to open up a substantial lead.

But the 22-year-old ended up in the gravel and another good chance of victory was snatched from his grasp.

Reigning world champion Jenson Button moved into the lead and went on to secure his first grand prix victory for McLaren.

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Vettel said after Sunday's race that he had seen sparks coming up from the front-left wheel and felt huge vibrations going into Turn 13.

"As soon as I touched the brakes I had some sort of failure going in to Turn 13 and ended up in the gravel," he added.

In Bahrain a faulty spark plug saw Vettel relinquish the lead and he eventually finished fourth.