Despite all his experience, Kimi Räikkönen failed to capitalise on the chaos at the Hungarian Grand Prix to just miss out on a points finish after crossing the line eleventh, team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi finished fourteenth at the Hungaroring.
Kimi Räikkönen’s race was virtually over before the race had even restarted, the Finnish driver was awarded a ten-second penalty for being released from the pit-lane unsafely. The unsafe release which was caused by an issue with the team’s traffic light release system, saw Räikkönen released from the pits right as Nikita Mazepin was entering his box. The two did collide with Räikkönen coming out of it unscathed, unlike Mazepin who immediately retired.
With overtaking being so difficult at the circuit, any hopes of a points finish were gone for the 2007 world champion, who was well inside the points after the opening lap crashes. The penalty just left too much work to do for the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver.
“The start of the race was a bit what you would expect in these conditions, with a hectic first lap and lots of things happening. We looked quite ok until the penalty, which pretty much compromised our race: there was an issue with the traffic light release system and we ended up colliding with Mazepin. Up until the penalty, we were deep in the points, but making it back from the bottom was just too much.”
“I spent a lot of time in traffic” – Antonio Giovinazzi
Antonio Giovinazzi had a similarly disappointing race, the Italian also received a penalty like his team-mate. The Italian’s penalty however was for speeding in the pit-lane and resulted in a ‘stop and go’ penalty.
With the twisty nature of the circuit Giovinazzi was left with no chance of a points finish, unlike Williams Racing who had both drivers finish in the points.The result puts Alfa Romeo down to ninth in the constructors standings, Giovinazzi is aware though that there are still an awful lot of races left to run.
“It just wasn’t our day. It was a race where we had the chance to bring home a good result and we didn’t, but it is what it is. With the penalty after the restart, our race was pretty much compromised: it’s hard to say how much pace we really had as I spent a lot of time in traffic, but when in clean air we were pretty good so it’s disappointing not to finish in the points.
“Let’s focus on recharging our batteries in this break and then come back stronger in Spa. There are still many races to come after the holidays and we will not give up.”
