Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Hungaroring, 2020

Raikkonen given penalty point for failing to line up in last place correctly

2020 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen has been given a penalty point on his licence for his error on the starting grid ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Alfa Romeo driver, who qualified 20th and last on the grid, failed to take up the correct position at the end of the formation lap before the start. The stewards noted this was corroborated by video evidence.

He was given a five-second time penalty and a penalty point on his licence, which puts him on a total of three penalty points.

The stewards also handed Nicholas Latifi a five-second time penalty during the race after ruling the team released his car into the path of Carlos Sainz Jnr’s McLaren after a pit stop.

Raikkonen said he realised he had lined up in the wrong position but wasn’t able to correct it before the race started.

“The grid was a bit slippery,” he said. “I went a bit too long into the box and I didn’t have the time to reverse.”

“Unfortunately starting where we did meant we had a very difficult job ahead of us,” he added. “We did what we could but it wasn’t enough for points. Our pace wasn’t too bad, I made up a few places at the start but the penalty put me back at the bottom.”

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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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22 comments on “Raikkonen given penalty point for failing to line up in last place correctly”

  1. 2nd placed guy actually moves before lights out and no penalty, but last placed guy gets a penalty for actually starting last. Farcical.

    1. @ivan-vinitskyy the onboard footage shows that Kimi overshot his starting position by quite some distance though – to the point where the front of the starting grid slot was roughly level with where the start of his sidepods was.

      In that respect, it’s a fairly cut and dried penalty for Kimi – it’s not just a small mistake, he’s overshot by a couple of metres in a way that is a pretty cut and dried penalty. Whether others are guilty of other offences is another matter, but this one seems pretty clear cut.

    2. Moving before lights is not a violation in itself.
      He stayed inside the white “box”, stopped the car going over – so everything is fine.

      It is not a jump start.

  2. He had the time penalty. But surely a penalty point as well is over the top

    1. Must be Derek Warwick as chief steward

      1. They need a pool of permanent stewards to rotate throughout the year. They use 7 per event, so a pool of 12 to rotate between each event would work better for consistency overall.

  3. Maybe he doesnt want to race in this pandemic situation ..and do whatever it takes ..by any means necessary ..to get fired.

    1. Well he’s still beating giovinazzi easily in every race. The race head to head over the 2 years must be crazy

  4. I’m sure Kimi won’t be losing any sleep over it.

    1. Maybe that’s the problem. Bonehead mistake. Completely ridiculous.

  5. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    19th July 2020, 16:43

    1 season too many for the Kimster I think.

    1. Still beating Gio though

  6. Jonathan Parkin
    19th July 2020, 16:44

    We need to rethink penalties because there are too many. When I first started watching F1 there were two penalties 1) A 10 stop-go penalty imposed for start line breaches (such as mechanics being on the grid after the 30 second signal), speeding in the pit lane, failing to move over for blue flags, overtaking under yellows and retaining or regaining a position by going off the track or 2) A black flag for reversing in the pits, leaving under a red light or changing cars too late.

    Can we go back to this please

  7. So Botta jump starts no penalty, works done on the grid for Verstappen and nothing said, second RB car aided with dry track nothing said and rai wrongly positioned….( what exactly was his fault ) he gets five seconds and license points, any body can help explaining ?

    1. There was no jump start.
      We already got clarification on that last year – if you stop the car while still in the white “box”, you are good. No jump start

    2. Bottas’s start is not a jump start determined by the rules, and your allowed to work on the car on the grid (to a point which Im not sure of) until a certain time. Do you REALLY think if working on a car is illegal then no-one would complain?

    3. But the penalty point is too far.

  8. A 5 second penalty is standard, but a point on his licence is stupid.
    Its a simple mistake, caught out by both the next 2 spots in front of him being vacated by the Hass cars pitting at the end of the formation lap.
    Clumsy, a mistake, but surely not a disciplinary issue!

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      19th July 2020, 21:53

      Points on licence are also standard.

  9. Points should be there for dangerous driving.

    The time penalty is fair enough for the grid infringement, but penalty points? C’mon now.

    I’d love to know in what way this was deemed even potentially dangerous.

    Dopey, yes. But in no way was anyone even remotely endangered.

  10. Silly. It didn’t even matter. The penalty points are especially silly, this was in no way dangerous.

  11. He endangered the last spot on the grid being left empty!
    Oh dear!

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