Lewis Hamilton has to start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane and receives a penalty

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane because he exceeded the permitted amount of powertrain components after qualifying at the Baku City Circuit. The British driver started the race in seventh place on Saturday.

Hamilton’s W15 F1 car will be fitted with a fifth internal combustion engine, as well as a fifth MGU-H, MGU-K and turbocharger. This update was expected following the engine failure Hamilton suffered at the Australian Grand Prix. Mercedes decided to introduce these changes in Baku, possibly due to the likelihood of safety cars on the tight street circuit.

Alpine has chosen the same path as Hamilton with Esteban Ocon’s A524 F1 car. Ocon had a challenging weekend that began with an MGU-H problem in the first practice session that limited him to just three installation laps and required a powertrain change.

In FP3, a high-pressure fuel pump failure forced him to stop on track and miss the rest of the session while Alpine replaced the components. Alpine then decided to introduce a new power unit and Ocon was lined up alongside Hamilton in the pit lane.

Pierre Gasly faced disqualification for violating fuel flow regulations, while Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu had to start from the back of the grid anyway due to exceeding the permitted number of drive components.

Hamilton was delighted with his W15 F1 car after the first practice sessions on Friday. However, after qualifying on Saturday, he admitted that the car did not run as well as he had hoped. After qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP, ​​he told the media:

“It’s the same thing every Saturday, so it doesn’t really surprise me.

“The car felt fantastic in the first and second FP and I was in a really good mood from the first lap. [we could] to be at the top.

“Sometimes you wonder on Saturday if the others were harder in FP1 and FP2.”

In order to keep his pace from Friday to Saturday, the seven-time world champion did not change anything on the W15. However, in qualifying, the tires did not offer enough grip. He added:

“As I said, yesterday was great [Friday].

“When we set off today, I hardly changed anything on the car because I didn’t want to break anything and the tires weren’t working.

“They weren’t working all day. On the last lap, like in the last sector, the tires just started working, but we missed it.”

Hamilton was confident that the car was capable of finishing in the top five. He explained:

“I think we have a car today that could have been – maybe not on the front row, the Ferraris are too strong – at least third or fourth, but the tires didn’t work.”