Grid penalty for Rosberg as Mercedes works to repair car

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Nico Rosberg will take a gearbox penalty after his crash in FP3, with Mercedes working "flat out to repair the car for qualifying".

The championship leader crashed on the exit of Turn 2 as a result of a left rear suspension failure, with the car being pitched into the barriers on the outside of the track. Mercedes has since confirmed the cause of the failure and is working to fix the car, with Rosberg needing a new gearbox following the crash.

"Left rear suspension failure after unusually high load at full throttle on exit kerb of T2 for Nico, which caused his crash," a team spokesman said. "The guys in the garage are working flat out to repair the car for qualifying so Nico can take part.

"Gearbox penalty will be incurred as a full new unit will be fitted for qualifying."

Rosberg had been fastest in each of Friday's practice sessions and was on a qualifying simulation when the crash occurred on Saturday. The championship leader has won each of the last two races in Austria.

Sebastian Vettel topped FP3 but also has a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's race as a result of a new gearbox taken this weekend. Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest in final practice ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

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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.