Lewis Hamilton’s bad weekend at Suzuka and fading championship chances got even worse on Saturday night.
The 2008 world champion learned he will have to move five places down the grid, whose order will be determined by an unusual Sunday morning qualifying session.
McLaren confirmed it detected "abnormal gearbox oil pressure" on Hamilton’s MP4-25 during the Saturday morning practice session.
"As we fired up Lewis’s car several times in preparation for qualifying, we became aware that the symptoms were worse than we’d originally diagnosed," a team spokesman said.