14
Lewis Hamilton is set to receive a five-place grid penalty at the Bahrain Grand Prix as Mercedes will change his gearbox. On Friday evening, the FIA revealed that the Briton's car would be fitted with a fresh gearbox before the commencement of the third practice session.
A gearbox can only be changed penalty-free after it has completed six races. Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas is also going to be fitted with a new gearbox, however he won't be penalised as he is allowed a free change following his penalty for changing the gearbox in Australia.
Mercedes said: "We had an hydraulic leak in Melbourne race and were fortunate to finish the race. Unfortunately we couldn’t repair the box within the six-race cycle so need to take a fresh one, incurring the grid penalty."
The grid-drop means that Hamilton will start Sunday's race from sixth place at the highest. He failed to top both practice sessions on Friday, ending the second practice session over half a second down on Ferrari.
Toto Wolff brushed off the gap to the Maranello outfit, but it appeared that the Silver Arrows were the slowest of the top three teams on the long runs, with Red Bull seeming to have the edge. Mercedes' James Allison admitted after the first day of running that it wasn't entirely comfortable with its day.
"Although we were untroubled by any reliability issues, and we ran through our programme as expected, it wasn't our best day from a performance point of view," he said.
"We've got more to do overnight and in the session tomorrow to give us a car that will allow us to have a good fight in qualifying and on Sunday. The base is okay but we have not yet found the sort of edge that we had in Melbourne."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
67 members have this team as their favourite
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
smh... Once again we will be denied of a proper challenge at the front. I hope more than anyone that I'm wrong, but I'm expecting Sebastian to simply run away with it. Whether on merit, or through Ferrari switching Kimi behind him and slowing people down. I hope I'm wrong in it turns out that Red... [Read more]