Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton to take gearbox penalty in China

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Lewis Hamilton's chances of victory in the Chinese Grand Prix have already taken a blow with the news he will take a five-place gearbox penalty.

The defending world champion sustained damage to his gearbox during the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Mercedes deciding it would need replacing ahead of this weekend's race. The team believes Shanghai represents the best overtaking opportunities of the current six-race cycle, therefore lessening the impact of the penalty.

As a result, even if Hamilton takes pole position during qualifying on Saturday he will start from no higher than sixth place on the grid.

Hamilton has won on four occasions in China but is already 17 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg in the drivers' championship after Rosberg's two victories in Australia and Bahrain.

Chris Medland's 2016 Chinese Grand Prix preview

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.