Fresh engine for Alonso, extra penalty for Ricciardo

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso will start the Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2015 with a new Honda power unit following the technical problems that prevented him setting a qualifying time at Interlagos on Saturday.

Alonso was instructed to stop his car early in Q1 after an unexpected water temperature rise. It was the second race in succession at which the Spaniard had failed to register a lap time in qualifying due to power unit difficulties.

The decision to change his engine for Sunday’s race - along with turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K - means Alonso picks up a 25-place grid penalty. As he was already at the back, this makes no difference to his actual starting position.

At Red Bull, meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo - who had already dropped from P9 to P19 on the grid for an unscheduled engine change - has been penalised an extra 10 grid places for using new Energy Store and Control Electronics units. Like, Alonso, his starting position is unaffected.

With all penalties accounted for, the provisional grid reads: Rosberg, Hamilton; Vettel, Raikkonen; Hulkenberg, Kvyat; Bottas, Massa; Verstappen, Sainz; Perez, Ericsson; Nasr, Grosjean; Maldonado, Button; Rossi, Stevens; Ricciardo, Alonso.