Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda hit with grid penalties in Mexico

Stroll in Azerbaijan — Photo: © LAT Images

Mexico City Grand Prix

Stroll and Tsunoda hit with grid penalties in Mexico

Stroll seventh Mercedes-powered driver to take a penalty this year

Ian Parkes

Friday 5 November 2021 19:11 Updated: 11:50

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda are the latest to be hit with power unit penalties for this F1 season.

Stroll is the seventh of the eight Mercedes-powered drivers this year to take penalties for changes of power unit components, leaving McLaren's Lando Norris as the only one to avoid issues.

Stroll has taken a new internal combustion engine [ICE], turbocharger, MGU-H and control electronics. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel took new PU elements at the last race in the United States.

Honda-powered Tsunoda's AlphaTauri, meanwhile, has been fitted with a new ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K.

Both drivers will now start at the back of the grid, with their slots on the last row to be determined by their performance in qualifying.

Referring to Stroll's PU change, Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer said: "I think the issues were discovered [by Mercedes] early on in the year.

"Hopefully the root cause has been fixed but because of it we have had to take an extra engine for each driver."

Asked on Sky Sports F1 whether the new PUs from Mercedes were now problem-free, Szafnauer added: "They've done their best to solve that issue.

"They know the root cause, they've done dyno testing but to ensure the system is robust, running on the track is the ultimate test.

"Fingers crossed all is fixed and we won't see a repeat this year."

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