Rosberg handed five-place grid penalty for gearbox change

Image Courtesy: Mercedes

Nico Rosberg has been handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after the German crashed heavily in FP3 earlier today.

With 20 minutes left in FP3, Rosberg lost his Mercedes at the exit of turn 2, shunting his car heavily into the barriers.

After the session, Mercedes confirmed that the left rear top wishbone failed ‘at an ‘unusually high load’, causing him to lose control of his car.

As a result of the incident, Mercedes has been forced to fit a new gearbox on his W07 Hybrid, invoking a five-place grid penalty.

The German had been on sublime form this weekend, topping both practice sessions on Friday.

by Rachit Thukral