Hamilton and Ocon to start Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pit lane after power unit changes

Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane after taking multiple new power unit elements following qualifying, breaching their allowances for the season.

Mercedes driver Hamilton had qualified for the race in seventh on Saturday but has now installed a fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of the season on his W15. The Briton has also taken on a fifth turbocharger (TC), a fifth MGU-H and a fifth MGU-K.

For Alpine’s Ocon, who has endured a turbulent weekend so far on what will be his 150th Grand Prix, he has also taken on a new ICE, TC and MGU-H to breach his allowances for the season. However, the Frenchman had qualified last on Saturday after being plagued with reliability woes across several sessions.

The penalties are the latest twist in the qualifying results in Baku after Pierre Gasly was disqualified from the session over a fuel flow breach while Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu went into qualifying knowing he’d start at the back of the grid after exceeding his allowance of power unit components.

With Hamilton’s penalty, it means several drivers will move up the grid including Lando Norris, who had qualified in a shock 17th in Baku. The McLaren championship challenger is set to climb to 15th courtesy of Gasly and Hamilton’s penalties.

Those penalised drivers, plus Norris – and many others on the grid – will hope they can move up the order in the race with overtaking opportunities aplenty around the street circuit in Azerbaijan.