Red Bull's Helmut Marko has predicted that Lewis Hamilton faces further grid penalties from changes to his Mercedes power unit in the final five races of the F1 season.

Both Hamilton and title rival Max Verstappen have had to recover from grid penalties in recent races thanks to changes to their respective Mercedes and Honda units, and Marko is of the belief that for Hamilton in the Silver Arrows more pain could well be on the way.

There are five races to go in the championship with the Mexican Grand Prix up next this weekend, followed by Brazil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, and at some point Marko believes Lewis is going to have to put in a recovery drive after incurring a grid penalty:

“I assume Hamilton will probably get another engine penalty,” he told n-tv.

“I don’t know whether it will be five or ten places, but that should definitely be in our favour.

“I think the pressure is psychologically greater for Mercedes,” he continued.

“We had a good 30 points lead at the summer break. Then we had our failures in Silverstone, Budapest and Baku, but in terms of kilometres led and victories, our marginal lead should be bigger.

“We still have to win two races, that’s clear. If we win the next two, I would rate it as 60 percent for Verstappen, 40 percent for Hamilton.

“I think if both of them cross the finish line, the decision will be made in the last race. But the whole picture is drastically different if there is a breakdown – an accident or a technical one.

"But as our self-confidence increases, the nervousness increases at Mercedes. I think that is the basic trend."