A series of engine failures early in the year meant Hamilton quickly reached the limit of new parts he is allowed for the season while Rosberg, who won the opening four races without problems, is within the limits.
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As a result, Hamilton now has a 30-place grid penalty to take into Sunday’s race, handing Rosberg an opportunity to reduce the 19-point gap to his teammate in the drivers’ championship.
But it will bring back exciting memories of his childhood days racing against the odds in karts. I just hope that I can get into the points.
The Brit received his fifth MGU-H and turbocharger at the Austrian Grand Prix in July, meaning one more change of either component will incur a grid penalty of at least 10 places.
Hamilton, clearly focused on his race rather than qualifying, was 13th, one place behind Alonso, who was 12th for McLaren having missed out on the morning session due to a water leak.
“I heard that the Red Bulls were quick and the Force Indias were quick and the Ferraris were somewhere”.
“As far as I am aware we will be taking the penalty this weekend”, he told reporters at a pre-race news conference, the first since Formula One’s traditional European summer break. More recently, Kimi Raikkonen fought back from 17th to win the Japanese Grand Prix in 2005.
“That (penalty) will come into play for sure”, said Hamilton.
Two years ago, Hamilton finished third in the Hungarian GP after starting from the pitlane and spinning off at the second corner.
A fire in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2014 also saw Hamilton fight back from last to third.
Hamilton was 0.730secs off the pace in that session, but it was the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo that dominated FP2.
“That would not be the right approach”, Rosberg said on Thursday.
This follows Sebastian Vettel’s rant when his tire blew during last year’s race.
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The 31-year-old is bidding for his 50th grand prix win and while the penalty means he will nearly certainly have to wait until at least Monza, he has shown ample skill in recovery drives in the past. “It is a growing experience for us and we have learnt a lot from the issues we had and hopefully we won’t have them again”.
