Bottas Silverstone bid hit by five-place grid penalty

Valtteri Bottas' hopes of making it back-to-back wins in the British Grand Prix have been dealt a blow after a gearbox change on his Mercedes landed him a five-place grid penalty.

The Finn - a winner last week in Austria - looked on fine form around Silverstone as he topped both FP1 and FP2 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, but he will now face a task to maintain his impressive momentum from a possible grid high of sixth on Sunday.

It is the second gearbox change for a Mercedes driver in as many races after Hamilton suffered a similar fate. On that occasion the Briton started eighth and finished fourth, though Silverstone arguably presents better overtaking opportunities compared with the Red Bull Ring.

Bottas has scored more points than any other driver in the last 4 events, picking up a fourth in Monaco, second places in Canada and Baku before winning in Austria.

He is 35 points adrift of Sebastian Vettel in the overall standings, with Hamilton 15 points ahead.