The Frenchman hit trouble after just four laps of running in the final free practice session, when he ran wide at the exit of Turn 3 with an unspecified problem.

As he returned to the pits, he radioed to let his Haas team know that he has also suffered some gearbox issues.

After returning to the garage, the team discovered that the problems could not be fixed so a new gearbox would be required for qualifying.

With teams running their race gearboxes on Saturday in Germany, it means the Frenchman will have a five-place grid penalty.