F1: Hamilton gets grid penalty for China

Lewis Hamilton will head into the Chinese Grand Prix facing a five-place grid penalty after Mercedes decided to change the gearbox on his Formula 1 car.

The previous gearbox on the reigning F1 world champion's W07 sustained damage during his recovery drive to third place in the Bahrain Grand Prix after a first-corner clash with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes discovered cracks to some components within the gearbox during an inspection of the unit on Wednesday and decided it could not be used again. The gearbox would ordinarily have needed to last until the end of May's Monaco GP.

Hamilton will therefore take a fresh gearbox for this weekend's Chinese race, which will put him in breach of rules that dictate gearboxes must last six consecutive events.

The only exceptions to these rules, for which a five-place grid penalty applies for a breach, are for non-starters and non-finishers (for technical reasons) of the previous race, neither of which applies in Hamilton's case.

Hamilton currently trails teammate Nico Rosberg by 17 points in the world championship after poor starts from pole positions contributed to defeats in the opening two rounds.

Originally on Autosport.com