Italian GP: Lewis Hamilton facing back of the grid start after engine penalty

Mercedes will fit a fourth power unit to Lewis Hamilton’s car this weekend at the Italian GP, meaning he will start the race at the back of the grid.

The Briton’s team has elected to fit a fourth power unit this weekend for Monza, which is set to trigger a penalty that will start him at the rear of the field.

This is the consequence of the accident he had with Fernando Alonso at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the impact on landing after Hamilton was punted up into the air the key moment.

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Hamilton and Alonso clashed on lap one at Spa and Lewis found himself up in the air after they banged wheels, with him coming down with a pretty severe bump.

Indeed, he tried to continue but retired later that lap, with Mercedes sending the power unit impacted back to Brixworth for inspection.

The plan was obviously to try and repair it and ensure Mercedes did not have to bring in another PU to the engine pool, which would spark a penalty, but they have deemed it unsafe for them to bring in that power unit at this time.

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Hamilton gets a fresh Mercedes power unit in his car, then, but that comes at a cost with him now having to fight through the field at Monza.

Of course, it’s a circuit that sees more overtaking than most but, even so, it’s not an ideal start to the weekend for the 7-time world champion.

It’s been a difficult triple header for Lewis.

Spa did not end how he would have wanted with him out on the first lap whilst at Zandvoort the Mercedes driver had a great chance of getting his first win of the season before things fell away via an uncharacteristic strategy