Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Silverstone, 2018

Raikkonen admits he ‘deserved penalty’

2018 British Grand Prix reaction

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Kimi Raikkonen has taken responsibility for the opening lap collision with Lewis Hamilton during the British Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver locked up under braking for the Village corner, hitting the Mercedes and sending him into a spin which dropped Hamilton to the rear of the field.

Speaking on the podium after the race, Raikkonen took responsibility for clash.

“Obviously on the third corner I locked a wheel and I was behind a car so I ended up hitting Lewis on the right rear corner and obviously he spun,” says Raikkonen. “So, my bad, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”

The stewards investigated the collision, deciding to award Raikkonen both a ten second time penalty in the race and two penalty points on his superlicence.

“It was my mistake, so that’s fine. I deserved it,” says Raikkonen. “I took the ten seconds and kept fighting. That’s how it goes.”

Raikkonen served his penalty during his first stop and eventually finished in third place after two late safety car periods bunched the head of the field together.

“For sure without the mistakes and the ten second penalty, it would’ve been better,” says Raikkonen of the race.

“Obviously in my view I did I could do, but obviously there seems to be a awfully opposite looks on what I’m doing unfortunately.”

2018 British Grand Prix reaction

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Will Wood
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24 comments on “Raikkonen admits he ‘deserved penalty’”

  1. Agreed. I was perfectly fine with him being penalized, but what I don’t really understand is the type of penalty he received. 10 seconds Vs., 5 seconds for a similar incident with a similar circumstance, LOL.

    1. @jerejj iwas thinking the same. I bet it’s just that it was Hamilton in the British gp and the fans were looking for blood.

    2. the difference is bottas and vettel himself were at the back of the pack after the incident… while here was only hamilton… thats the reason why they were harder on kimi

      1. @j3d89 Yes, but Hamilton still finished ahead of Kimi while Vettel finished ahead of Bottas following their come-together in France.

        1. because whitting did everything he could to help lewis with those 2 VSC chances he got and turned them into Full SC… if not lewis might had finished 5th

          1. We’ll never know. Sure, the SC helped Lewis close the gap, but it also have Vettel Thema Chance to change the tyres that he was struggling on.

  2. I felt the penalty was a bit harsh, but if Kimi himself is fine with it, then hey ho, I’m not going to worry.

    1. Manan (@mananbond007)
      8th July 2018, 17:53

      Agree… Penalty points sound harsh… Both guys could race after the incidence… Seemed a bit unnecessary…

      1. Maybe it’s precaution in case it was deliberate. lol.

  3. Something Max will never do. Big up Kimi for owning up.

    1. This is exactly what Max did after hitting Vettel this season and RIC last season

      Get your fact straight

      1. But he didn’t get penalties for it iirc.

  4. Good sportsmanship and another great podium for Kimi.

  5. I wouldn’t mind this penalty if the stewards were consistent. But they’re not. How’s this worse than what SV did in France? And Verstappen got no penalty at all in Austria. This inconsistency means I have zero respect for the F1 stewards. Kimi is very fair. Some other drivers would have thrown a tantrum at the severity of their penalty in comparison to other precedents

    1. They don’t call him “The Iceman” for nothing.

    2. it is consistent.. just stop for a moment and think what happen and see the difference
      france:
      vettel locked hit bottas seb change tires and wing now hes at the back with bottas (partially the victim)

      silverstone :
      kimi tried to overtake hamilton after a really bad start locked touch hamilton he can keep going while hamilton spin and is at the back now…

      so despite they look like a touch or crash in the first lap, the reality is that vettels mistake caused him to go to the back while kimi barely lost position, thats the reason sv got 5sec and kimi 10sec

  6. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    8th July 2018, 19:13

    I am amazed that so many are comparing this incident to last weeks with Vettel and saying the stewards are inconsistent. No incident is ever identical.

    Last week, Vettel hitting Bottas resulted in a puncture for Bottas. It happened to affect Vettel enough for him to have to pit and it did cost him a huge amount of track time. But Bottas’s puncture did cost him more time. But they can’t just wait to find out if Bottas happened to have other damage later in the race (which as it happened, he did). That penalty although it seems unfair, was the realistic one to give Vettel.

    This time in Britain. Raikkonen hit Hamilton in a similar way. But Raikkonen barely lost out despite being at fault and didn’t get damage. Although Hamilton didn’t have a puncture like Bottas did last race, he did get knocked to the back. But luckily, didn’t suffer damage. But Bottas’s damage was only really evident later on in the race. They can’t make Vettel’s penalty harsher as a result. Raikkonen and Vettel were just as strongly to blame for these incidents I’d say, but with this latest one, Raikkonen didn’t effectively give himself much of a penalty despite being clearly to blame. If Raikkonen had spun Hamilton to the back and damaged his own car badly too resulting in a pit stop being needed, the stewards may have gone with just a 5 second penalty like we saw last week. But these incidents have had very different outcomes. They just are not comparable.

    Everyone who complains about the stewards being inconsistent are very unlikely to be one themselves. It will be a tough job and people complain if they don’t make quick decisions. Then when they make one, people often complain if the outcome as a result of the penalty happens to turn around later on in the race and the penalty not being enough or being too harsh. With the amount of penalty options they have, it isn’t possible to be totally consistent as no accident is ever the same.

    They will have more data and more detail of the replays than we see. So we should respect their decisions.

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      8th July 2018, 19:22

      As the steward already explained, the outcome is not taken into consideration when applying a penalty. The reason why people are saying they are inconsistent, is because both times a driver locked up and hit another. While I think they are not the same, it’s easy to see why people would think it.

      1. @passingisoverrated Exactly. Many people here just don’t understand the rules and/or what is considered in these rulings. It’s easy to make these mistakes since the rules are not properly written down, but when you actually read a lot of these stewards decisions then it does become clear(er).

  7. Kimi really should have manned up and said sorry to Lewis in the cool down room.

  8. It’s good that he owned up to his mistake, but personally I think he should have apologised to Hamilton in the drivers’ cooldown room before the podium. Maybe that would have helped diffuse Lewis a bit and might have discouraged him from making the comment he did on the podium.

    1. With all the talk about how drivers are passionate, dedicated, and extremely competitive, how do you think Kimi’s going up to Lewis Hamilton, shaking his hand and saying “My bad, mate” would have gone down? Anyone with half a brain knows that driver’s comments immediately out-of-the car should always be taken with that in mind. I’m sure Hamilton, a man that decided to break Parc Fremé rules just to skip talking into a microphone, was really looking for an immediate apology.

      If you ask me, Kimis actions are in line with his words. “Sometimes these things happen” so instead of poking a nest of fire ants called Lewis Hamilton, he stayed clear of the situation avoiding ANY possibility of further escalation being blamed on him.

      The result is, only the most fanatical of Lewis apologists see it as anything but a racing incident. Sensible people are pointing their fingers at Lewis Hamilton/Mercedes, asking “Why such a sore loser?”.

      By staying quiet, Kimi showed remarkable ability to read Lewis’s state of mind and, in my opinion, respect for a fellow racing driver.

  9. Would love to see Ferrari give Kubica a try for a year – if not for his accident I believe he’d have ended up their eventually anyway.

  10. Verstappen hits Raikkonen, Raikkonen catches the oversteer and the racing continues. Raikkonen hits Hamilton who spins and ……………….

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