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 f🌼ive-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 Haཧmilton, but he will now ওface 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 wi💃th the Red Bu♍ll Ring.

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

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