Formula One news

Hamilton demoted to the back

World Champion Lewis Hamilton will be starting the season-opening Australian Grand Prix 20th and last on the grid following a gearbox change for his McLaren-Mercedes. The British driver just scraped through to the second phase of qualifying as the part began to fail, before remaining in the garage for the remainder of the session.

Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh confirmed the failure to be in the gearbox department, suspecting there to be a problem with a dog ring. As all gearboxes used in Australia must last for four races - up to and including the Bahrain Grand Prix on 26 April - Hamilton's world title defense has, on paper, begun in the worst possible way.

One advantage he may receive as opposed to starting in his qualifying position of 15th, however, is that there should be a higher change to avoid any first corner incidents, should they occur. The team also mentioned that it could have repaired the MP4-24 and therefore not been penalised, but prefered to start the race with a fresh gearbox.

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