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Lewis Hamilton has been handed a five-place penalty on the starting grid for this Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.
McLaren have to change the gearbox on Hamilton’s car on Saturday morning, as confirmed by Lewis, before the race and hence he will drop down five places on the grid after qualifying.
The rules state that any UNSCHEDULED gearbox change will result in a five-place grid drop.
It will be very important for Hamilton to qualify as high up the grid as he can because he cannot start higher than 6th.
This guarantees a new driver will be on pole this Sunday and we will not get to see a hattrick of McLaren front-row lockouts this season.
The silver lining for Lewis is that out of the last six grand prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, only two pole sitters have been able to win the race; Hamilton himself having won last year’s Chinese grand prix after qualifying 3rd on the grid.
This is a golden opportunity for Jenson Button to grab his first McLaren pole as the Woking team seems to be the fastest in qualifying, although the two Mercedes cars of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg will again be the dark horses on Saturday, especially because of the very long back straight.
