Grid penalties coming Ricciardo's way in Brazil

Daniel Ricciardo isn't expecting to get a free pass after his engine failure in Mexico two weeks, with the Red Bull driver bracing for a grid penalty on Sunday.

Ricciardo's power unit in Mexico suffered an MGU-H failure, and while it was initially hoped the element could be replaced with a similar component in Red Bull's pool of used parts, the installation of a new and eighth element is probable.

The replacement would trigger a 10-place drop for the Honey Badger.

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"[A penalty is] likely at this stage," Ricciardo said on Thursday at Interlagos.

"We could maybe avoid it but it's probably going to put us at a risk again of maybe not finishing. We tried to avoid it last week but it still didn't happen.

"It's likely. We probably won't have a big one, but if it is it could be like a 10 place. If that's the case the plan is to start the race in 11th [by topping qualifying]!

"We are going to discuss it but if they say 'you've got 10 per cent chance of finishing the race with this thing' I'll want to change it.

"If they are kind of like 50-50 I'd take the risk, but I have the feeling it's less than a 50 per cent chance."

After Max Verstappen's bad reliability spell over the summer, mechanical failures have hit Ricciardo in the last two races.

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