Sebastian Vettel may have emerged victorious from Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix to claim his second win in as many races this season, but the day was marred by a horrific injury to one of his team's mechanics.

Ferrari pit crew member Francesco Cigorini suffered a broken leg after a botched pit stop late in the race involving Vettel's teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Cigorini was still attempting to properly attach the left rear wheel of Raikkonen's car during the pit stop, when the Finn began to drive off - having been given the green light to do so by the team's automatic release system.

Raikkonen then proceeded to run over his mechanic, immediately fracturing both his shinbone and fibula.

Raikonnen was brought to a halt shortly after, but the damage was done. The malfunction also saw his participation in the race ended.

The full story behind the gruesome incident has now been revealed by Sky Sports presenter Rachel Brookes - who blamed the chaos on the unique manner in which Ferrari structure their pit stops.

“The interesting thing about Ferrari pit stops is they have different situations to the other teams," Brookes told TalkSport.

“The guy putting the wheel on in that position at the left rear of the car is in front of the wheel. All the other teams have their guy putting the wheel on behind the wheel.

Brookes seemed puzzled as to why Ferrari would adopt such an approach to just one of the wheels on their cars.

“Even Ferrari, on the other three wheels do that, so I don’t know why just on that left rear they had the guy standing in front...If you watch the video, you will see his leg is directly in front of the wheel.

"It looked as if it is a situation that if it did go wrong, it obviously would go badly wrong," she suggested.

Brookes also went into detail as to the exact reason as to why the malfunction had occured.

"With Kimi and that wheel, the first wheel didn’t come off, the soft tyre that was on didn’t come off at all, so the guy couldn’t push the wheel he had in his hands on. Somehow the automatic release system let him go and unfortunately it let him go too soon," she stated.

The stricken Cigorini would later reveal via an Instagram post that he had undergone successful surgery to repair his leg.

Ferrari were quickly slapped with a €50,000 fine in response to the incident and will now surely conduct an internal review of their pit procedures - particular in view of the fact that they were also fined €5,000 for an unsafe pit release during Friday's practice session.

The Scuderia have enjoyed a flying start to season - currently leading the Constructors' Championship by 10 points - but will be keen to ensure that Sunday's stomach-churning scenes are never repeated.