Grosjean set for grid penalty in Germany

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Romain Grosjean will receive a five-place grid penalty for the German Grand Prix as a result of an unscheduled gearbox change.

Early in the final practice session, Grosjean ran off the track at Turn 3 and proceeded to have a very slow lap as he attempted to rectify a gearbox problem. While Grosjean managed to return to the pits, Haas investigated the issue and decided a gearbox change is required.

Taking a new gearbox before the end of the mandatory six consecutive races each one must complete will result in an automatic five-place grid penalty, which will be applied after qualifying.

Grosjean was slowest in the final practice session as a result of the problem, with the Frenchman completing just four laps before being stopped. Haas team-mate Esteban Gutierrez finished FP3 in 13th place, just 0.2s off the top ten.

The Haas was also involved in another incident at the start of the session as Grosjean felt the need to brake in the fast lane of the pit lane after Lewis Hamilton was released in front of him. Mercedes and Hamilton are under investigation for the incident.

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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.