Bottas receives 5-place grid penalty for Brit GP

SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND — After setting the pace in practice for the British Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas’ bid for a second successive victory was hit by a five-place penalty on the grid for the Formula One race.

The sanction was imposed due to an unscheduled change of gearbox because it has not been used for six consecutive races.

Bottas, who won the Austrian race last weekend, had outpaced Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in practice on Friday.

Bottas was less than a tenth of a second faster than Hamilton in the afternoon at the Silverstone circuit.

“There is still work to do to get the car more driveable and to be able to trust it more in the high-speed corners,” Bottas said. “But overall it was a good start for the weekend. I’m impressed by the new cars on this track with its high-speed corners. They’re so much quicker.”

Hamilton, who failed to make the podium in the last two races, was competing in front of home fans amid an ongoing backlash for being the only driver to fail to attend a live F1 showcase in central London on Wednesday.

Hamilton’s name was jeered when it was mentioned at the Trafalgar Square event, but the three-time world champion revelled in the warm reception at Silverstone.

Hamilton is looking to reignite his title challenge, having slipped 20 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was fourth fastest in the second practice session, behind Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, after an experimental transparent screen was removed from the car in the morning. The polycarbonate shield, placed on Vettel’s Ferrari for the first time, is designed to protect against flying debris while offering an unrestricted view.

But it made him feel “dizzy” and he was not overly impressed.

“The vision is not very good and it’s because of the curvature that creates a bit of distortion,” Vettel said. “We had a run plan but I didn’t like it too much. I couldn’t see much.”