Hamilton set for Azerbaijan GP pitlane start after engine change
Lewis Hamilton will start Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pitlane after Mercedes chose to change several components of his power unit.
Hamilton, who had qualified in seventh place, has now taken his fifth engine of the season, one more than the permitted allocation, as Mercedes has also swapped the turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K components.
It comes after his team-mate George Russell also had an engine change on Friday, with the younger Briton set to start fifth.
After FP1 in Azerbaijan, Mercedes spotted an anomaly in the oil analysis on Russell’s car and acted as a precaution.
Meanwhile, after qualifying Hamilton said: “Every Saturday, it’s the same — so, not really surprising.
“FP1 and FP2, car felt amazing. I was really on it, literally, from lap one.
“Sometimes we wonder when you get to a Saturday whether the others were heavier on P1 and P2.
“It felt great yesterday and then as soon as we started today, I barely changed anything to the car because I didn’t want to mess anything up and the tyres wouldn’t work.
“All day, they’ve not worked. I think the last lap, like the last sector, the tyres just started to work. But we’d missed it.”
More to follow…
Watch: What went wrong for Norris? And other Baku Qualifying drama – F1 Azerbaijan GP Saturday Update
