Kimi Raikkonen was critical of the decision to hand him a ten-second stop and go penalty during the Belgian Grand Prix, feeling it was pointless to penalise him for ignoring yellow flags.
Double waved yellow flags were waving down the Kemmel Straight as marshals removed Max Verstappen’s broken down Red Bull Racing machine, but stewards at Spa-Francorchamps investigated Raikkonen after he failed to lift, as is required in the regulations.
Raikkonen admitted that he did not lift, and felt that as Verstappen’s car was halfway behind the barrier, lifting was not needed. However the stewards looked at it differently, and handed the Scuderia Ferrari driver the stop and go penalty and three penalty points on his Superlicence.
“I knew there was a yellow flag but the car was at least halfway behind the barrier on the straight,” said Raikkonen. “I didn’t go faster but I didn’t lift on the straight. In my view it was pointless to get penalised for that.
“I completely understand if he was by the side of the circuit, on the proper side and there is people working on it. But this is what happened and I would be surprised if everybody else lifted…
“Luckily there was a safety car and we could recover something, but it was not the easiest end of the weekend but it’s what happened.”
