Kimi Raikkonen has had a wonderful start to his Bahrain weekend topping the second practice session and escaping a close call for a grid penalty, because of a failed pit stop on part of the Ferrari pit crew.
After setting the fastest lap time during FP2, Raikkonen had come into the pit lane for a practice pit stop, however, the right front wheel wasn’t attached properly and it seemed like Raikkonen would be awarded a grid penalty under all circumstances.
When it comes to loose wheels FIA sometimes can be very harsh with teams slapping the driver with a grid penalty for sure, however, the stewards have decided to not sanction Raikkonen and Ferrari as the Ferrari team did everything in their control to minimise the damage.
A €5,000 fine was imposed though!
“The Stewards reviewed the video of the pit stop of Raikkonen at 19:14 and heard from the team representatives.
“The Stewards determined that the car was released in an unsafe condition in breach of Art. 28.13.b, that the team ordered the car stopped immediately, and that the driver stopped as fast as he safely could.
“Consistent with previous instances where a car was stopped on track, the Stewards decide that the mandatory grid place penalty could not be applied where the team took all appropriate actions, the Stewards fined the team €5,000.” the FIA statement read.
Raikkonen too spoke about the entire incident, saying that such things can happen in practice when you are testing things out.
“I felt some vibrations and it was loose and we had to stop,” Raikkonen said.
“It’s impossible to say what everybody is doing but not too bad. There’s things we have to improve but it’s a normal Friday when you try things to test you try to learn from them.” he concluded.
