Kimi Räikkönen and Lance Stroll have been handed time penalties after the end of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Räikkönen was given a hefty but confusing 30-second time penalty for a restart infringement. The Finn had scored Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s first points of the season with ninth place, beating Alpine F1 Team duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
The incident occurred when Räikkönen spun at Turn 3 when drivers were running behind the Safety Car after the red flag period.
According to the FIA regulations, Raikkonen should have returned to his original position before the first Safety Car line, which he failed to do so.
Raikkonen’s penalty promoted Ocon to ninth and Alonso to tenth – the two-time champion’s first points of the season.
The stewards’ explained in a statement: “The Stewards consider it to be a further contradiction that when the cars are behind the safety car during a safety car period, the are prohibited from passing, but when they are behind the safety car for a restart, they are permitted to – even though the reasons for a rolling start are that the track conditions don’t permit a standing start.”
“However, the rule requiring a car to enter the pit lane if it fails to regain its position is consistent amongst several championships, has been in the FIA Formula One Stewards Sporting Regulations for several years and has been consistently applied.”
“The penalty is a mandatory penalty, and therefore the Stewards consider that they have no alternative than to apply this penalty for reasons of consistency.”
This confusing statement sent out by the stewards does potentially leave room for a potential appeal by Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN.
Stroll was demoted to eighth place after picking up a five-second time penalty for overtaking Pierre Gasly off of the track.
The Canadian initially classified in seventh place, but due to this penalty, he drops to eighth behind Gasly. The Stewards statement said:
“Having reviewed the video and heard from the drivers, the Stewards conclude that Car 18 was not able to complete his pass on car 10 at Turn 2/3 without leaving the track completely shortcutting Turn 3 and returning on the track ahead of car 10.“
“He then failed to give the position back. In hearing from the drivers the Stewards accepted that car 18 was ahead of car 10 at the point he left the track, but that he was in that position because of a manoeuvre that he was not able to complete on the track given the wet conditions.”
