Lewis Hamilton will start the race 10 places lower than his qualifying position after Mercedes fitted a new ICE (Internal Combustion Engine), his fourth of the season; Mercedes hoping to limit penalty damage in title fight against Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton will take a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Turkish GP after Mercedes fitted the championship leader with a new engine in Istanbul.

Hamilton has been moved onto his fourth ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) of the season, one more than is permitted in the F1 regulations.

But Hamilton is set to avoid the back-of-the-grid start that title rival Max Verstappen served in Russia as the Englishman, with only one element changed on his Power Unit, will start the race 10 places lower than his qualifying position.

Hamilton was fastest in Istanbul’s first practice session on Friday.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Lewis Hamilton was hoping for a stronger start to the second half of the season but insists Red Bull have just been too strong.

Red Bull’s Verstappen recovered from 20th to second at the Russian GP to limit Hamilton’s title lead to just two points despite taking his big penalty with a completely new Honda engine.

While Hamilton played down the possibility of an engine penalty coming into the weekend, Mercedes had told Sky Sports that they wanted to avoid taking reliability “risks” in the championship battle against Verstappen.

There are only seven races left in the season and Mercedes feared a DNF if they did not take a fourth engine.

“Most important is that you don’t DNF because of a reliability issue,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff earlier this week. “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.”

Hamilton isn’t the only driver serving an engine penalty this weekend; Carlos Sainz will start at the back of the grid with Ferrari’s new PU.

More to follow.