Kimi Raikkonen has been given his second reprimand of the season following an incident involving Romain Grosjean during the final practice session.
Grosjean had to swerve to avoid Raikkonen after the Ferrari driver slowed at the exit of Curve Paul Frere. A furious Grosjean said the move had been “very dangerous”.
The stewards said Raikkonen had been warned more than once that Grosjean was approaching.
“The driver of car seven [Raikkonen] was performing a constant speed test whilst car eight [Grosjean] was on a fast lap. The driver of car seven was advised twice by team radio that car eight was behind him.”
“At the exit of turn 15, car seven ceased acceleration at 200kph but remained on the racing line. This required the driver of car eight to take abrupt evasive action to avoid a collision.”
Raikkonen will automatically be given a ten-place grid penalty if he collects a third reprimand before the end of the season. He was previously reprimanded for dangerous driving in the pit lane in Bahrain.
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
22nd August 2015, 15:30
Stars don’t align for Kimi. What’s going on with him? He’s getting all the possible bad luck you can imagine race after race, and making mistakes as this one with Romain doesn’t help either.
ColdFly F1 (@)
22nd August 2015, 15:53
@omarr-pepper – I guess the contract extension was enough ‘aligned stars’ for him ;)
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
22nd August 2015, 15:58
@omarr-pepper Payback for final 2 races of 2007?
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
22nd August 2015, 16:16
@davidnotcoulthard you mean he already had so much good luck that year?
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
22nd August 2015, 16:44
@davidnotcoulthard 2007 was (if we are to believe in luck, karma or stuff) his payback in favour for his 2005 blown tyre in Germany (while leading and that eventually played in favor to Alonso).
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
22nd August 2015, 16:51
I found a video of those 2 final laps… Danm now Kimi would be 2WDC!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw-USwauS9s
Mashiat
22nd August 2015, 17:53
@omarr-pepper Erm…no. He would still be 9 points adrift
Deepak (@taurtion87)
24th August 2015, 10:28
Wish the merc engines of 2003 and 2005 were as reliable as the 2015 merc engines!! ;)
John H (@john-h)
23rd August 2015, 10:35
Keep calling it bad luck. It’s actually not.
John H (@john-h)
23rd August 2015, 10:36
Ah my bad, I learned to read!
George (@george)
22nd August 2015, 17:19
Drivers can be a bit dramatic about things like this but I have to agree with Grosjean on this one. I don’t know if Kimi thought he wasn’t on a lap or something, but he made no effort to get out of the way at all. Ceasing accelerating on the exit of a corner with a car behind you is pretty much unforgivable, he should really know better. I’m surprised he didn’t get penalty points for it actually, I would call it dangerous driving.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
22nd August 2015, 17:39
Kimi, go home please.
Kobayashi24 (@kobayashi24)
23rd August 2015, 0:57
Stay home, nobody.