The world champion was relegated to the back of the grid at Shanghai after he suffered an MGU-H problem in the first qualifying session.

After that issue, the team elected to replace the power unit for the race while investigation of the broken engine took place back at the team's factory last week.

That work has now concluded that there was not significant damage and the power unit – the first of the five he is allowed to run this year – will now become a spare.

A statement from Mercedes said: "The power unit in question arrived back at Brixworth in the early hours of Thursday morning of the week following the race and investigation into the failure has been on-going every minute since its return to the factory.

"The MGU-H has been stripped and the issue is suspected to be associated with the insulation. The turbocharger will be replaced in addition to the oil pumps, after debris was found in the oil system.

"With the repairs completed, this power unit will remain in the driver pool and travel to Sochi as a spare."

Keeping calm

Despite another frustrating time in China, Hamilton has said he is not losing heart about his tough start to the campaign.

"There was plenty going through my head after China, as you'd expect," he said on Monday. "But, after all these years, experience has taught me to stay calm and keep pushing forwards when I get knocked back.

"I've been here before a few times now. A lot can happen over the next 18 race weekends and I have the utmost confidence in this team.

"But adversity is part of the journey: it brings us closer, makes us stronger and I know that together we'll bounce back, so I'm confident of better weekends to come."