Gearbox change forces grid penalty on Bottas!

Valtteri Bottas-Mercedes
© XPB 

Valtteri Bottas will take a 5-place grid penalty for Sunday's British GP following an unscheduled  gearbox change decided by Mercedes.

Damage, similar to the issue which forced Mercedes to change Lewis Hamilton's gearbox in Austria, was apparently detected by the German squad.

"Valtteri's gearbox was damaged in the same way as Lewis', but less severely, and we had hoped to coax it to the end of the cycle," said a Mercedes spokesman.

"However, we have not been able to do so."

Bottas was fastest in both of Friday's free practice sessions but will now face an uphill battle with a 5-spot starting grid demotion.

Mercedes insisted however that the source of the gearbox issue had been indentified and resolved.

"The cause of the damage is now behind us, just as for Lewis' problem."

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