Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pit lane after having some new powertrain items fitted after qualifying, but do not meet season clearance.
Mercedes driver Hamilton, who qualified for the race in seventh place on Saturday, has fitted the fifth internal combustion engine (ICE) of the season to his W15.
The Briton also went for his fifth turbocharger (TC), fifth MGU-H and fifth MGU-K. Alpine’s Ocon, who had an eventful weekend at the 150th Grand Prix, also exceeded his season quotas with a new ICE, TC and MGU-H.
However, the Frenchman had qualified last on Saturday after being plagued with reliability woes across a number of sessions.
The penalties are the latest twist in the qualifying results in Baku after Pierre Gasly was disqualified from the session over a fuel flow breach while Sauber\’s Zhou Guanyu went into qualifying knowing he\’d start at the back of the grid after exceeding his own allowance of power unit components.
Hamilton’s penalty means several drivers will move up on the grid, notably Lando Norris, who surprised everyone by qualifying in 17th place in Baku, while title contenders McLaren are expected to move up to 15th place thanks to the penalties imposed on Gasly and Hamilton.
With overtaking opportunities galore on Azerbaijan’s street circuit, the penalised drivers will be hoping to move forward in the race, along with Norris and many others on the grid.
