Hamilton confirms engine penalty at Spa

The championship leader has already used his fifth and final turbo and MGU-H, meaning a penalty will be handed as soon as he uses the sixth unit.

The Briton confirmed on Thursday that will be the case at Spa, although he did not elaborate on the exact plan.

"As far as I am aware we will be taking the penalty this weekend," said Hamilton.

"Naturally we already discussed engine penalties before, that will come into play for sure but I will do everything I can to minimise the impact I have.

"Otherwise, beyond that penalty that I will eventually take, I think I will be able to continue with the momentum I had before the break."

Hamilton, who has won six of the last seven races, admitted he is not thinking of winning the race, but rather about limiting the damage.

"I think in terms of winning, that is the goal but it will be very, very hard – the gap has closed between other cars, we are in third year of evolution of cars and Red Bull is quick – same as Ferrari," he said.

"It will be harder than it was last year or year before to climb through field, It will be about minimising the damage of taking a penalty."

The world champion, who was hit by a series of engine problems early in the year, insisted there was no point in pointing in blaming the team.

"It is a team sport, so we win and lose together as a team – sometimes it is not just a mistake just a thing that happens," he added.

"I don't look at it as incompetence, I look at it as a learning experience because we learned from the issues and they won't happen again."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble

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