British Grand Prix stopped after Raikkonen crash

2014 British Grand Prix

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A heavy crash for Kimi Raikkonen forced the stoppage of the British Grand Prix on the first lap.

The Ferrari driver suffered a frontal impact with the barrier at the bridge on the Brooklands straight.

He had run wide at the preceding corner and rejoined the track further down the Wellington straight. Raikkonen lost control of his car and spun sideways into the barrier.

The Ferrari driver was hit by Felipe Massa who was unsighted behind Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham. The Williams driver spunt his car as he tried to avoid Raikkonen.

Kobayshi said: “I saw Kimi make contact, then start coming back across the track. To the right was just debris so i went left but he kept coming and the tarmac started running out so I could only go onto the grass.”

“I was very very close to the barrier and the car was bouncing all over the place, but I just made it through.”

After the crash Raikkonen asked if Massa was alright. The Williams driver has able to driver his car back to the pits.

The race was red-flagged but Raikkonen swiftly climbed out of his car, which sustained heavy damage at the front and rear.

The barrier he hit also sustained heavy damage, and the race was suspended while marshals replaced the damaged panels.

2014 British Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “British Grand Prix stopped after Raikkonen crash”

  1. The perfect commercial for standing restarts next year.

  2. Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
    6th July 2014, 13:45

    Lovely save from Felipe, so sad to see his 200th grand prix end so soon! Oh well, suppose us Massa fans are used to it… Onwards and Upwards!

  3. I thought they could do a standing restart if a whole lap was not completed – like a total reset in original starting positions.

    1. The race timer has recorded two laps though

      1. I think that was only because they crossed the line to line-up on the grid.

  4. Possibly Kimi’s worst weekend in his F1 career. He was unlucky in qualifying, but the crash was a fault of his own.

    I hope Kimi is fully OK and will race in Hockenheim

  5. Hero of the race for me goes to Felipe Massa. The avoiding action he took is probably the reason Kimi will be ok for the next GP.

    1. Nodding my head in agreement @sebsronnie. Someone, who shall remain nameless, was interviewed after the race and said Massa locked up. That comment was either uninformed or uncharitable. Massa didn’t “lock up” imho; he took immediate – and skilful – action to avoid t-boning Kimi’s car.

    2. Graham (@guitargraham)
      6th July 2014, 20:11

      yep, agreed. i dread to think what would have happened if massa hadnt brilliantly thrown his car sideways as he was heading right for kimi.

  6. Michael Brown
    6th July 2014, 14:04

    Lauda took this opportunity to rant on F1 being over-regulated, and voiced his dislike for waiting an hour to replace the barrier. Yes F1 is way too tightly regulated (and 2015 isn’t doing it any favours), but replacing the barrier is very important for safety.

    1. It should be possible to design a barrier that’s just as safe, yet can be repaired in under 10 minutes.

    2. Niki was talking how the chance of another driver hitting that spot was low. He, among all people, should know about low chances; who would guess the fastest car would break suspension, plunge head on into a wall, catch on fire, on the worst possible circuit in the world.

      1. And also being hitted by another car and unable to get out for nearly a minutes

    3. Lauda was quite right, and I’m very glad that it was on live TV. Jordan’s answer (legal liability) was weak at best. The chances of anyone else hitting that exact point on the armco was within a gnat’s hair of zero, and delaying the start for an hour was just plain wrong for numerous reasons.

      Safety has come a long way over the years (not a bad thing in itself) but today’s fiasco just proves that the pendulum has swung too far. When I was a youngster, we used to say “That driver is crazy — he’ll kill himself before the end of the season”; now we just say “he’ll get a five place grid penalty if he’s more than 70% responsible.”

  7. Just British could put curbs on an F1 circuit, kimi lost control when coming back to the track.

    1. Because obviously there’s no grass by the edge of the Red Bull Ring, Spa, Hockenheim, Nurburgring, Melborne, Sepang, Shanghai, Montreal, Interlagos…

      Oh wait, they all have grass.

      1. It wasn’t the grass though.. it was the bump beneath the grass

        1. Which you’ll find at any track lined with grass

    2. Kimi was going to rejoin through the flat area, but he caught a bit grass, the car slipped, he caught MORE grass and a bump, and the rest is the rest. His mistake.

  8. It was nice to hear that Kimi’s first radio contact was “Is Felipe okay?” (as mentioned on Austrian TV)

    1. Exactly. After a crash that big no matter who is at fault. Asking if your rival is okay is a rare thing these days.

    2. suprise it wasn’t “I know what I’m doing”

  9. With all the focus on safety I thought it strange that there was a big ditch parallel to the straight. That’s what launched Kimi’s car into the barrier.

    1. There was not a big ditch. There is a transition between grass and track which is the same at practically every track that has a grass area. It was Kimis fault for rejoining after the run off ended. He should be given a 5 place penalty for rejoining dangerously.

      1. Looked like a ditch to me

        1. For a start if it was a ditch I would imagine the car would have disintegrated before it even reached the track. Also there is always going to be some sort of bump between grass and track it is just not possible to make all the edges perfect as so many things can affect the grass area. It is not something unique to Silverstone. It is not as if cars are expected to use the area, as such the area just before the incident has AstroTurf in order to make it safe for cars to rejoin the track. Kimi simply should not have been joining the track at full speed at that point. He should have slowed down as even if he had no lost control it was still dangerous to fly back on to the track.

      2. Michael Brown (@)
        6th July 2014, 23:49

        I do believe Raikkonen should be penalized for this.

    2. I believe Silverstone and the FIA are partly to blame on this and I can’t believe something hasn’t been said. Years ago if a driver went off the track they would be on grass or in the gravel, if they were able to keep the car going they would be rejoining the track at a low speed. The dip in the grass, or the drop beyond the curb would not be such a problem a low speed. Now some bright spark thinks it’s a good idea to have tarmac run offs everywhere. By doing that I believe the circuit then has the responsibility to ensure the driver can rejoin the circuit at a higher speed. How can we expect any driver to slow down to 20mph when they are on a smooth tarmac runoff. I don’t think Kimi should be penalized, he rejoined in a decent gap.

  10. Raikkonen trying far too hard to push through the backmarkers too early before he had heat in his tyres. A silly immature mistake from a driver who should be more composed. Inevitably his petulance caused the tyres to let go, overshoot, and finally spin it around on the track. The resulting chaos on the track was unaviodable. My greatest respect to Max and Felipe for avoiding what could have been tragic incidents. The reactions of Felipe as his view cleared to see a stricken Ferrari in front of him was amazing. Hats off to to the marshals for a superb job of rebuilding the armco and clearing the track.

  11. Complete irony that this year a red-flag start has to be done behind the safety car, yet next year a safety car restart has to be done from the grid.

    Awfully stupid choices.

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