F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Penalties for Sainz and Magnussen after gearbox changes

Carlos Sainz is set to receive a five-place grid penalty while Kevin Magnussen will start from the pit lane after making car changes ahead of the Grand Prix of Europe.

Having qualified 13th on the grid, Sainz has taken a new gearbox ahead of the race which will result in a five-place grid penalty. Dropping to 18th, the penalty promotes Fernando Alonso, Esteban Gutierrez, Felipe Nasr, Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein one position each.

Kevin Magnussen has similarly taken a new gearbox which would result in the same penalty, but with the Dane already 21st on the grid Renault has also taken the opportunity to make changes to the set-up of the suspension. Such a change requires Magnussen to start the race from the pit lane.

Magnussen's changes promote team-mate Jolyon Palmer one position to 21st on the grid after the two Renaults were originally scheduled to start from the back row.

The only other penalty was known on Saturday, with Sergio Perez taking a new gearbox after his crash in FP3. Perez went on to qualify an impressive second on the grid but will start from seventh place as a result.

REPORT: Rosberg secures Baku pole as Hamilton crashes out

AS IT HAPPENED: Grand Prix of Europe - Qualifying

Silbermann says ... Ballrooms and having a ball in Baku

Chris Medland’s 2016 Grand Prix of Europe preview

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.