Hamilton set for pitlane start at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will start today's Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane after Mercedes needed to change his power unit ahead of the Baku race.
Following an encouraging opening day at Baku, Lewis Hamilton endured a difficult qualifying session on Saturday, struggling to generate heat in his tyres.
The seven-time world champion had qualified for the race in seventh, and hoped to enjoy a better time in the 51-lap race, just as he did in Monza two weeks ago where he struggled for one-lap pace, but bounced back with a much better race performance on Sunday.
Mercedes has now confirmed that it has installed a fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of the season on his W15, with only four ICEs permitted for a driver for the entire length of the season. The Briton has also taken on a fifth turbocharger (TC), fifth MGU-H and a fifth MGU-K.
After the qualifying, the British driver noted: "Qualifying was disappointing as we had a good day yesterday and I thought we could be in the fight for the front two rows.
"Unfortunately, I was struggling to get the tyres working and that is what it is all about. We will analyse why that was as a team and hopefully make improvements moving forward.
"The aim is to move forward tomorrow, and I am staying positive that we can do so. It is not always easy to progress here, but we have a slightly different tyre strategy to others which may help us.
"We will also have to look after the tyres as it is easy to suffer with the rears. If we can do so, then hopefully we can have a better day than we had today."
