It seems as if Lewis Hamilton's hopes of cutting the gap to Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers Championship will suffer a small blow this weekend when it was confirmed that the Mercedes man will need a gearbox change ahead of its allocated time.
Apparently the FIA were told that this could be a possibility earlier in the week, so Hamilton will be forced to drop five places on Sunday's Austrian GP grid.
If things continue down the same path as they did on Friday, Hamilton will more than likely secure pole position, meaning he will drop back to P6, making his task of beating Sebastian Vettel that little bit harder than originally thought.
However, as the recent Baku GP proved, anything can happen during the race and Hamilton was happy with the way things have already gone here this weekend…
“It's been a really good Friday with no major headaches to complain about so far. We had to swap out a spark plug during FP2, but the guys did a great job to turn the car around and we still managed to complete our programme,” he said before the penalty became common knowledge.
“Most importantly, the car feels fantastically fast here. There's already a nice balance and it feels good out on track. This car is so quick in comparison to what we raced here last year. It's tricky, but a proper thrill to hook up a lap. The team is in good spirits and we're all up for another exciting fight with the Ferraris this weekend.”