Complication for Hamilton! He received a penalty for the engine change, from which place will he start on Sunday?

The battle for the world championship is coming to a head and for Lewis Hamilton it could be quite a complication. The seven-time world champion has been forced to change another engine, meaning he will drop down the order at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix as a result of the penalty he received.

It is the second drop on the grid that Hamilton has experienced in the last four races due to an unplanned engine change, and the fifth for the Mercedes driver since the summer break in August.

The rules of Formula One speak clearly. Drivers can only change three combustion engines during the season, after which they face a penalty of dropping five places on the grid.

The same applies to the other power unit components. Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have already fitted their fifth and sixth internal combustion engines this year.

So, as the post above says, the seven-time world champion will start Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix from no better than sixth position. In fact, he has received a penalty of five places off the grid for the engine change.

The answer to the question of why Hamilton cannot take this penalty in Saturday’s sprint qualifying is simple. For sprint qualifying, if you like, is not officially recognised by F1 as a race, but as the qualifying session that will determine the order for the start of Sunday’s race.

“Unfortunately, since the middle of the year we have had reliability problems that keep coming back. I think we now have a better understanding of why this is happening. That is, they are not as resilient, which leads to potential DNFs (retirements from the race, for example due to technical problems – ed.),” explained Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ stable boss, in an interview with Sky Sports.

Hamilton received a previous penalty in Turkey last month, but it was a drop of up to 10 places on the grid, as it was the first time he had exceeded the aforementioned limits this season.

Source: Sky Sports