The penalty, imposed since the original gearbox did not last the required six events, sees Bottas drop from his qualifying position of 11th to 16th. Team mate Felipe Massa starts sixth.

The only other man carrying a grid penalty going into the Melbourne race is Manor rookie Rio Haryanto, who was penalised three places for his pit-lane collision with Haas’s Romain Grosjean in FP3.

The provisional starting grid thus reads: Hamilton, Rosberg; Vettel, Raikkonen; Verstappen, Massa; Sainz, Ricciardo; Perez, Hulkenberg; Alonso, Button; Palmer, Magnussen; Ericsson, Bottas; Nasr, Kvyat; Grosjean, Gutierrez; Wehrlein, Haryanto.