Lewis Hamiltꦍon is set to be hit with a five-place grid penalty for the Bahrain 💮Grand Prix after Mercedes was forced to change his gearbox.

The Briton looks 😼likely to drop five-places from wherever he qualifies on Saturday following the change, which came after Mercedes detected a hydraulic leak during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Article 23.5a of the F1 sporting regulations states that drivers m🐓ust complete six events before taking on a new gearbox.&nb💯sp;

"We had an hydraulic leak in Melbourne race and were fortunate to finish the race," confirmed a Mercedes spokesperson. "Unfortunately we couldn’t repair the box within the six race cycle so need to 𓆉take a fresh one, in💃curring the grid penalty."

Following his defeat to Sebastian Vettel in Melbourne, the reigning world champion feared Ferrari would be “rapid” in Bahrain. That prediction came true on 🥃Friday at least, as Kimi Raikkonen ended the day by leading Fer♊rari one-two at Sakhir, 0.5s clear of Mercedes.

When asked where he felt Me🎶rcedes was lacking, Hamilton replied: “I don’t know. It’s difficult to say. I think we’re going to have to look upwards and you’ll see that the Ferraris seem to be a little bit quicker on the straights. 

“So you could argue that💞 it’s a little bit of power but then a lit𝔍tle bit of downforce.”

Hamilton was seen running wide on a number of occasions throughout the day as he finished some way off Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in opening practice, before improving to fourth place in the evening session - albeit over half a second adrift of the Ferrari▨ duo. 

While Hamilton is anticipating a tough weekend ahead, he insists he has not yet e🐼xtracted the maximum from his W09 challenger. 

“I’m definitely not where I am… I mean, we’ve got things to impꦜrov🐈e on. What it’s just shown is that it’s incredibly close between the three teams, like really close. I think it will be a tough weekend.”