Rental car - unusual issue

I've been driving around a brand new Audi A1 automatic for the last few days while travelling in spain, car literally has 5000km on it and I've driven it rougly 250km. This car has an old fashioned handbrake, which I personally prefer, and I've used it most of the time before putting it in park.

Today, a few seconds after applying the handbrake before leaving the car, I hear a cracking sound and I notice the handbrake lever has fallen down a little bit. I release it and apply it again, and while fiddling with it it falls all the way down and the release-button becomes almost totally loose, not loose enough so that I can pull it out but enough for me to see some of the plastic mechanism inside.

Now, the red warning brake light is lit all the time, and while driving the car thinks the parking brake is applied (which it is not, and can not be applied at all because the clicking mechanism is broken)

This is literally the last thing I thought would break on any car, I didn't even know this could happen, let alone on a brand new car. I'm posting here in case anyone has encountered this issue before. Given how much disassembling is needed to take the lever apart I don't think it is an easy fix but I don't really feel like spending my last day on vacation driving 150km back and forth to the airport to get a new car.

I'm a tiny bit worried the car rental will try to blame this on me, and I have only the basic insurance package....

Any thoughts?