Fernando Alonso will start the Austrian Grand Prix from the back of the grid and face an in-race penalty after an engine change earned him a 20-place grid demotion.
Alonso spoke of the possibility of engine penalties on Thursday and on Friday McLaren confirmed it had moved onto the Spaniard's fifth internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger and MGU-H. The first fifth component used means a 10-place penalty, before a five-place penalty for any additional fifth element subsequently used.
McLaren also changed Alonso's MGU-K, but as it is his third component of the season it did not incur any additional demotion. The hefty penalty is guaranteed to carry over into the race regardless of where the Spaniard qualifies and will be converted on how many grid places are left to serve:
1-5 places: 5s penalty
6-10 places: 10s penalty
11+ places: Drive-through penalty
One shred of comfort for Alonso will be the fact he is running McLaren updates this weekend - a new, shorter nose (set to be run for the first time in FP2), revised wings, new floor and bodywork tweaks. He gets the new parts in Spielberg as McLaren alternate upgrades between himself and Jenson Button at each race weekend.