Hamilton penalty irks brawn

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn has called for a rethink of the rules after Lewis Hamilton was punished for events beyond his control.

Hamilton went into qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix knowing he would face a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. That had been necessary after a left-rear tyre blowout at the end of final practice that forced him to take defensive action to avoid a high-speed crash.

Suggested to Brawn it was time for the regulation to be addressed, he replied: "I think Lewis would agree with you because he made the very same point to me, that external influences have given him a penalty."

The 28-year-old managed to limp back to the pits, but with damaged suspension it led to repairs to the left-rear of the car, with one of the knock-on effects being the requirement of a new gearbox.

It is understood Hamilton collected debris that led to the puncture, an unavoidable incident for which he theoretically should not have been punished.

It means Hamilton, after qualifying fourth behind suprise polesitter in team-mate Nico Rosberg, will now line up ninth and facing a tough battle to make it three successive podium finishes.

Brawn added: "The difficulty we have in the future is where we get marginal cases where you have a problem, perhaps aggravated by the driver, and you don't get a gearbox failure as such, but it needs to be changed.

"Then you get into these long debates.

"But it is frustrating to get a penalty when there has been an outside influence. It's annoying.

"Fortunately it doesn't happen too often, but if it were to happen at a critical part of the season then it would be doubly frustrating, so it's worth looking at again."