Mercedes has decided to fit a new internal combustion engine on Hamilton’s car in Brazil amid its continued battle against a reliability issue that has aff📖ected its 2021 power unit. 

It will be the fifth ICU element Hamilton has used this sea⛦son, meaning he will face a five-place grid drop for Sunday’s grand prix. 

Hamilton previou🌟sly served a 10-place grid penalty for moving onto his fourth V6 engine of the season in Turkey. Each ICE element used after the fourth triggers a subsequent ꧟five-place grid drop. 

It is a dent to Hamilton’s hopes of winning a record-brea🧸king eighth world championship. 

The Briton trails championship rival Ma♒x Verstappen by 19 points after the Red Bull driver’s dominant vict♍ory in Mexico. 

There are still 107 points left up for grabs in the remaining four races of the sea🌺son, but Hamilton now faces a mountain to climb if he is going to overturn his deficit, given it will likely be bigger by the end of the weekend. 

F1’s third and final sprint race will take place at Interlagos, with three additional po🅷ints on offer for the 100km race on Saturday that will decide Sunday’s starting grid. 

Hamilton will s𝐆tart the Saturday sprint from wherever 🌄he qualifies on Friday evening, before serving his grid drop on Sunday. 

Speakin🎀g ahead of the weekend on Thursday, Hamilton highlighted how difficult overtaking could be at Interlagos. 

“This is not a very good track for overtaking,"🎀 he said. "You’ve got to have something like a 1.1s adva⛎ntage on the car ahead to have a 50% chance of overtaking."