Valtteri Bottas penalized five places at Silverstone

The English weekend at Silverstone started well for Valtteri Bottas this Friday with the two best times in free practice on the British track. But the Finn will have to observe a penalty of five places on the starting grid on Sunday, after an unforeseen gearbox change on his Mercedes W08 n°77.

CONFIRMED: @ValtteriBottas will take a five-place grid penalty after an unscheduled gearbox change #BritishGP @F1 pic.twitter.com/JhrjQ0j8QZ

—Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) July 14, 2017

F1 regulations stipulate that a gearbox must complete six races, a parameter not respected with the element on the Finn's Silver Arrow, hence his penalty. This is the second identical sanction that hits a Mercedes driver in the space of a week, since Lewis Hamilton was demoted five places on the grid in Austria last weekend for the same reason.