Kimi Raikkonen has described his time penalty as ‘unfortunate’ and now he understands why it was awarded but sees the issue as petty.
The Ferrari driver was hoping for a strong race and was praying that his Ferrari-powered engine wouldn’t give up to the straight-line superior Mercedes engines which supported the Force India and Williams teams.
Raikkonen found himself on the back-foot after receiving a five-second time penalty early in the race, after crossing the white line on the entry to the pits.
The Finn was following the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo but pulled to the side too late, after realising that the Australian was heading to the pits.
“I understand the rule of crossing the line, but it’s stupid, you gain zero from that.” The penalty was a curse for the fans and Raikkonen, as we were denied the opportunity to see him fight Sergio Perez for the last podium place.
Raikkonen believed that he could keep a five-second gap to the Force India behind him, but blamed a lack of blue flags for his failure to pull away.
“The aim was to keep the five seconds to the next ones, but twice I ended up following one Sauber and one Haas for more than a lap and lost a lot of lap time.”
“Overall I’m a bit disappointed. It was a difficult weekend, not a lot of fun. But it wasn’t a disaster.”
After conceding third place late on in the race, the Finn had to accept a fourth place finish, seeing him finish in front of Lewis Hamilton.
