Mercedes has confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will start the Brazilian Grand Prix from the pit lane, having opted to take his car out of parc ferme conditions, following his Q1 crash.
Hamilton led the way during Friday’s practice sessions at Interlagos but lost control of his W08 through Ferradura on his first push lap in Q1. Hamilton skated into the barriers at Laranjinha, sustaining substantial damage to the left-front of his car, ruling him out of the remainder of the session.
As a result, Hamilton did not qualify, consigning him to 20th on the grid, irrespective of penalties for his rivals, and Mercedes has elected to fit new parts ahead of the race.
Mercedes says it will also fit a new engine, with Hamilton moving onto his fifth internal combustion engine, MGU-H and turbocharger.
“Lewis will start from the pit lane as we will have to break parc ferme, fitting parts of a different specification to those used in qualifying,” Mercedes confirmed. “Prime among those will be a new power unit, as there is no penalty for doing so in the circumstances.”
“I was just taken by surprise,” Hamilton told. “The car bottomed out a bit. If you look at the replay, the car is bottoming throughout the corner. Often when it bottoms, it stalls the floor, and that often happens when the car is cold and the tyres are cold. These sort of things happen. I hadn’t gone in there any quicker than I had done before.”
NEWS: @LewisHamilton will start the #BrazilGP from the pit lane as we will have to break parc ferme #F1 pic.twitter.com/5GZy8PcYD6
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) November 11, 2017
