Mercedes has elected to change the power unit of George Russell's car following a water leak during Hungarian GP qualifying.
At the end of Q3, Russell stopped on-track at Turn 1 after completing his final flying lap, with the Briton confirming that the power unit fitted had suffered a water leak.
As a precaution, the team has now decided to swap the ICE component of Russell's power unit for a fresh example.
Crucially, Russell will not incur a grid penalty as the new ICE will be the fourth of four permitted in the season to use penalty-free.
"During George’s final lap in Q3, we detected a loss of water pressure on his car and instructed him to stop as a precaution once he had completed the lap," a Mercedes spokesperson confirmed to media, including RacingNews365.
"Following further inspection, we have elected to change his power unit ahead of tomorrow’s race, moving to his fourth unit of the season and thus within his season allocation.
"As the change is also being made to replace a damaged component with one of the same specification, George will incur no grid penalty."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Samuel Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Belgian GP and look ahead to this weekend's race in Hungary. George Russell's major setback is a key discussion, as is Toto Wolff stating Mercedes has the best power unit.
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