Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the team is “90 per cent confident” that Valtteri Bottas’ car can be repaired without incurring any grid penalties.
Bottas suffered a 17G impact when he hit the wall exiting the final sector during qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix, with his Mercedes W10 sustaining substantial damage.
Bottas was given the all-clear after a mandatory trip to the medical centre while Mercedes revealed that the car had sustained “extensive damage.”
Mercedes, though, remains optimistic that Bottas’ car can be fixed without the need for any grid demotions.
“We are 90 percent confident we can fix without any penalties,” said Wolff.
“It was an unusual angle of impact so I think we got away with that.
"They are rebuilding it as we speak. We have to look into the detail but we have not seen any damage to the gearbox but we do not know if it is leaking.”
Should the gearbox require replacing then a five-place grid penalty would be applied.
Any change of chassis would automatically trigger a pit lane start.
On the crash Bottas said: “The last run in Q3, the last corner I went a bit deep and went wider than I wanted and I just lost traction and went into the wall and at the end was a Tec Pro barrier, which was a bit nasty.
“It was a good lap since then and I could have been fighting for third place.
"In the first few minutes, I felt it [a bit of pain] in my right knee, I think it was a nerve thing but it is alright now.”
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