SPIELBERG, Austria: Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of reducing Sebastian Vettel’s 14-points lead in this year’s drivers’ world championship suffered a setback late Friday (Saturday in Manila) when he was handed a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The penalty is the regulation mandatory punishment for an unscheduled gearbox change, in this case before Hamilton’s unit had completed six races, his Mercedes team confirmed.

Premium + Digital Edition

Ad-free access


P 80 per month
(billed annually at P 960)
  • Unlimited ad-free access to website articles
  • Limited offer: Subscribe today and get digital edition access for free (accessible with up to 3 devices)

TRY FREE FOR 14 DAYS
See details
See details