Hamilton set for five-place F1 grid penalty

Lewis Hamilton is set to be hit with a five-place grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix after Mercedes was forced to change his gearbox.

The Briton looks likely to drop five-places from wherever he qualifies on Saturday following the change, which came after Mercedes detected a hydraulic leak during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Article 23.5a of the F1 sporting regulations states that drivers must complete six events before taking on a new gearbox. 

"We had an hydraulic leak in Melbourne race and were fortunate to finish the race," confirmed a Mercedes spokesperson. "Unfortunately we couldn’t repair the box within the six race cycle so need to take a fresh one, incurring the grid penalty."

Following his defeat to Sebastian Vettel in Melbourne, the reigning world champion feared Ferrari would be “rapid” in Bahrain. That prediction came true on Friday at least, as Kimi Raikkonen ended the day by leading Ferrari one-two at Sakhir, 0.5s clear of Mercedes.

When asked where he felt Mercedes was lacking, Hamilton replied: “I don’t know. It’s difficult to say. I think we’re going to have to look upwards and you’ll see that the Ferraris seem to be a little bit quicker on the straights. 

“So you could argue that it’s a little bit of power but then a little bit of downforce.”

Hamilton was seen running wide on a number of occasions throughout the day as he finished some way off Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in opening practice, before improving to fourth place in the evening session - albeit over half a second adrift of the Ferrari duo. 

While Hamilton is anticipating a tough weekend ahead, he insists he has not yet extracted the maximum from his W09 challenger. 

“I’m definitely not where I am… I mean, we’ve got things to improve on. What it’s just shown is that it’s incredibly close between the three teams, like really close. I think it will be a tough weekend.”