Valtteri Bottas is set to take a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
Bottas topped both of Friday’s practice sessions at Silverstone, narrowly beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in each session by less than a tenth of a second.
The Finnish ace will suffer the same fate as Hamilton in Austria, after failing to meet the minimum amount of races before making a gearbox change.
Mercedes changed Bottas’ gearbox following the Spanish Grand Prix and shouldn’t have changed it before the Belgian GP.
However, Bottas’ gearbox was damaged in a similar way to Hamilton’s after Baku, which will mean he will start no higher than sixth in Sunday’s race.
The 27-year-old won his second race of the season in Austria, closing the gap to his team-mate in the drivers’ championship to 15 points.
