BACK OF THE PACK
Lewis Hamilton is poised to start Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix from the BACK of the grid due to an engine penalty.
The world champion has a two-point advantage over Max Verstappen but is set for a new power unit, triggering a host of penalties.
F1 drivers are allowed to use three engines over the duration of the 22-race season. Any additional power units come with sanctions.
Hamilton has already used his allocation and his Mercedes team are now weighing up whether to introduce a new one for the remaining seven races.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It’s a possibility. When, and how, is not yet decided. Most important is that you don’t DNF because of a reliability issue.
“You can cope with swings, whether you finish second, third, I think that is OK, the championship is going to go long. But if you don’t finish…
“So we are looking at the parameters of the engines, making sure we don’t suffer from any reliability problems.”