Hamilton received a 10-place grid penalty for the first “seventh” component on his engine and five for the second, meaning the fresh power unit costed him another 15 places on the grid following his penalty earlier in the day. “Never say never, I’m going to go for it, but it’s unlikely”.
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“Probably the biggest concern and margin for improvement is that getting in and out of the vehicle is quite tricky at the moment”, said Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, who was one of the three other drivers to test the device.
But a third new engine is also expected to be introduced for Practice Three on Saturday which would result in Hamilton being certain to start from last and his demotions adding up to 75 places in total.
The Briton said he did not yet know how the team would approach qualifying, given he will be at the back of the grid regardless. I love this track, particularly if there is good weather.
“Today, I didn’t do any low fuel runs, I only did race fuel running the whole time and it will be the same tomorrow to try to get the most realistic and representative scenario for Sunday”. I can’t do anything about Nico.
Lewis Hamilton has admitted that it will be “damage limitation” at the Belgian Grand Prix after he was handed a 30-place grid penalty.
The penalty has been looming over Hamilton after he encountered a number of engine failures in the opening rounds of the season.
Mercedes have chosen to take as many new engine parts as necessary this weekend to put Hamilton in the best possible position for the remainder of the season, because any penalty he incurs beyond 20 places is effectively taken for free.
“It’s still going to be a challenge because if we remember just four weeks ago, I finished behind two Red Bulls in the race”, said Rosberg referring to the last race in Germany which he started on pole but finished fourth.
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Hamilton has the opportunity to make history on Sunday – no F1 driver has ever won a Grand Prix when beginning the race from the rear of the field. But their rivals have made some inroads into their advantage and first Ferrari and then Red Bull have harried them in races a lot more this season compared to the last two years. Coming back to win will be very hard and unlikely.
